About 500 law firms report a brief derivation of Trump’s decrees targeting the legal community

By Eric Tucker

Washington (AP) – The executive decrees of President Donald Trump targeting the legal community constitute “a serious threat to our system of constitutional governance and the rule of law itself”, according to a judicial file submitted on Friday by more than 500 law firms.

The thesis represents the most organized decline to date against a series of decrees of the White House which have sought to punish some of the most elite companies in the country and to extract dealerships. Some of the targeted companies continued to interrupt the application of orders, while others have concluded agreements with the White House either to avoid an order or to have it canceled.

The file was submitted within the framework of a trial brought by Perkins Coie, who is one of the companies that have challenged the orders before the court. The order against this company and others requires that the security authorizations of its lawyers be suspended, that federal contracts be terminated and that employees’ access to federal buildings be restricted.

The cabinet has won an order of the court temporarily blocking the application of several provisions of death, but its trial is still unanswered.

Friday, more than 500 companies and law firms from all over the country signed a brief exhoring a judge to definitively block the order. Companies, in their deposit, call on order a “serious threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the rule of law itself”.

“The imminent threat posed by the executive decree in question in this case and the others as it is not lost for anyone who practiced law in this country today: any controversial representation contesting the actions of the current administration (or even the facts) now brings the risk of devastation of reprisals,” says the brief.

He adds: “Whatever the short -term advantage that an administration can gain from the exercise of power in this way, the rule of law cannot bear long in the climate of fear that such actions create. Our opponent system depends on zealous defenders by pleading each side of a case with equal vigor.”.

Last month, Paul Weiss became the first company to conclude an agreement with the White House, agreeing to devote 40 million dollars to Pro Bono legal services to provoked by the Trump administration and to ensure hiring based on merit instead of counting on diversity, equity and inclusion considerations in its employment practices. In exchange, the White House canceled an advertising decree published a few days earlier.

Since then, Millbank and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firms have concluded similar agreements to avoid being struck by a decree.

Several of the targeted companies have been subject to orders, in part, because of their previous or current associations with lawyers who have investigated Trump or are among the president’s perceived adversaries.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 1:31 p.m.