Dem
47
GOP
53
More than 500 law firms denounced Donald Trump for his attack on multiple large law firms and his extorting them into devoting up to $100 million for pro bono work on causes he favors. None of the 20 biggest law firms in the country were among the 500.
What the 500 firms did was sign an amicus brief in the case of Perkins Coie, which is challenging Trump's authority to penalize them just because they won't obey his every whim. The brief said: "Whatever short-term advantage an administration may gain from exercising power in this way, the rule of law cannot long endure in the climate of fear that such actions create." The administration regards the rule of law as a nuisance, but the judge may think otherwise.
George Conway, on a podcast at The Bulwark, has an explanation why some firms just kowtow to Trump and others fight him. It has to do with the nature of their business. Many of the larger law firms do a lot of merger and acquisitions work for giant corporations. These cases are done on a contingency basis. If the deal goes through, they get paid a percentage of the size of the new company. If the deal does not go through, they get zero. In many of these cases, the merger or acquisition has to be approved by the federal government for one reason or another. The firms that do this kind of business are afraid that Trump will simply order any merger or acquisition they shepherd to be rejected in order to punish them if they don't submit to his rule, thus hurting the firm financially after all the work has been completed. Firms that do criminal defense, family law, complex contracts, patents and other work are much less afraid of Trump and are fighting him because he has no easy way to punish them. These include Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale. It's all transactional. (V)