{"id":140358,"date":"2025-12-30T17:27:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/30\/trumps-law-firm-executive-order-appeals-exist-to-haunt-biglaw-make-sure-his-threats-never-die\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T01:27:19","slug":"trumps-law-firm-executive-order-appeals-exist-to-haunt-biglaw-make-sure-his-threats-never-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/12\/30\/trumps-law-firm-executive-order-appeals-exist-to-haunt-biglaw-make-sure-his-threats-never-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Law Firm Executive Order Appeals Exist To Haunt Biglaw, Make Sure His Threats Never Die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>The district court wrote careful opinions which were relatively consistent. An ordinary litigant might have said it\u2019s not worth it. But the desire to win on appeal is not the only reason to pursue these appeals. The appeals force the targeted firms to incur significant legal fees and live with some measure of uncertainty. The fact that the cases have not been finally resolved may have some in terrorem effects on other firms that are observing what is happening.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong><em><i>\u2014<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/law.uconn.edu\/person\/leslie-c-levin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leslie Levin<\/a>, a legal ethics professor at the University of Connecticut Law School, in comments given to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/2025\/12\/26\/law-firm-eo-litigation-to-take-new-turn-in-2026-as-appeals-proceed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law.com<\/a>, concerning the Trump administration\u2019s retaliatory law firm executive orders. Each firm that challenged in court successfully attained injunctions, with the orders found unconstitutional. <a href=\"https:\/\/law.ucla.edu\/faculty\/faculty-profiles\/scott-l-cummings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Cummings<\/a>, a legal ethics professor at UCLA School of Law, echoed Levin\u2019s thoughts, telling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/2025\/12\/26\/law-firm-eo-litigation-to-take-new-turn-in-2026-as-appeals-proceed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law.com<\/a>, \u201cI think it\u2019s inevitable that they headed this direction, [for the government to] move these things as far as it possibly can move them, even just to impose additional kind of pressure and expense on the law firms.\u201d Cummings went on to assess Trump\u2019s chances on appeal, saying, \u201cI think the outcomes will be inevitable against the government. I think all four injunction orders are very strong.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"mailto:staci@abovethelaw.com\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2025\/12\/trumps-law-firm-executive-order-appeals-exist-to-haunt-biglaw-make-sure-his-threats-never-die\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump\u2019s Law Firm Executive Order Appeals Exist To Haunt Biglaw, Make Sure His Threats Never Die<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-single__featured-image post-single__featured-image--medium alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/12\/trump-GettyImages-1192141437-300x217.jpg?resize=300%2C217&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><figcaption class=\"post-single__featured-image-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Mark Wilson\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><u>Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/tag\/quote-of-the-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>The district court wrote careful opinions which were relatively consistent. An ordinary litigant might have said it\u2019s not worth it. But the desire to win on appeal is not the only reason to pursue these appeals. The appeals force the targeted firms to incur significant legal fees and live with some measure of uncertainty. The fact that the cases have not been finally resolved may have some in terrorem effects on other firms that are observing what is happening.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong><em><i>\u2014<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/law.uconn.edu\/person\/leslie-c-levin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leslie Levin<\/a>, a legal ethics professor at the University of Connecticut Law School, in comments given to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/2025\/12\/26\/law-firm-eo-litigation-to-take-new-turn-in-2026-as-appeals-proceed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law.com<\/a>, concerning the Trump administration\u2019s retaliatory law firm executive orders. Each firm that challenged in court successfully attained injunctions, with the orders found unconstitutional. <a href=\"https:\/\/law.ucla.edu\/faculty\/faculty-profiles\/scott-l-cummings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Cummings<\/a>, a legal ethics professor at UCLA School of Law, echoed Levin\u2019s thoughts, telling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.com\/2025\/12\/26\/law-firm-eo-litigation-to-take-new-turn-in-2026-as-appeals-proceed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Law.com<\/a>, \u201cI think it\u2019s inevitable that they headed this direction, [for the government to] move these things as far as it possibly can move them, even just to impose additional kind of pressure and expense on the law firms.\u201d Cummings went on to assess Trump\u2019s chances on appeal, saying, \u201cI think the outcomes will be inevitable against the government. I think all four injunction orders are very strong.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/Staci-Zaretsky.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66762\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/staci-zaretsky\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#aedddacfcdc7eecfccc1d8cbdac6cbc2cfd980cdc1c3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/stacizaretsky.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@stacizaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/staci-zaretsky\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day. The district court wrote careful opinions which were relatively consistent. An ordinary litigant might have said it\u2019s not worth it. But the desire to win on appeal is not the only reason to pursue these appeals. The appeals force the targeted firms to incur [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Staci-Zaretsky-6pMZqp.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}