Law firms’ deals with Trump roil their staff, deepen industry rifts

By Sara Merken and Mike Scarcella

April 14 (Reuters) - Law firms that have pledged $940 million so far in free legal work and made other concessions to U.S. President Donald Trump are facing a backlash from some of their own lawyers, who say the firms compromised too much to avoid a showdown with the administration.

Los Angeles lawyer Siunik Moradian said on Monday that he received messages of support from people inside and outside his firm when he resigned on Friday from Simpson Thacher after its deal with Trump earlier in the day.

"By capitulating today, Simpson Thacher joins several other historic, powerful, influential and well-resourced law firms in bending the knee and kissing the ring of authoritarianism," Moradian wrote in his resignation letter.

He told Reuters that not enough individuals and institutions were standing up to the president, who has issued punitive executive orders against five law firms over their past legal work or political connections.

"It takes intentional acts," Moradian said of his decision to resign as a Simpson Thacher associate.

Jacqui Pittman, who was a Chicago-based associate at Kirkland, said she also resigned on Friday over her firm's deal with Trump the same day. Pittman wrote in a message to colleagues that she posted on LinkedIn that she "cannot continue at Kirkland in good conscience."

Kirkland and Simpson Thacher did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Moradian and Pittman join lawyers at Skadden and Willkie Farr who also resigned over similar deals the firm reached with the president.

Five firms on Friday agreed to devote between $100 million and $125 million in pro bono legal work to mutually supported causes with the administration and promised not to engage in what Trump called "illegal DEI discrimination."

Four of the firms simultaneously settled on Friday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which agreed to end a probe into their diversity policies.

The settling firms "affirmed their strong commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession," the White House said on Friday.

Trump twice last week suggested using firms that made deals with him to work on trade negotiations. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The firms that have reached agreements with Trump — nine in all — have defended the deals publicly or in internal memos as necessary to protect their interests without compromising their principles.

"We know and understand that this development may weigh heavily on some of you and that you may not agree with the path we have taken," Simpson Thacher chairman Alden Millard wrote to the firm on Friday.

Hundreds of lawyers and staff at A&O Shearman, another firm that struck a deal with Trump on Friday, had signed a letter earlier in the day urging the firm not to do so.

“We appreciate that A&O Shearman and other law firms are facing an unprecedented threat," said the letter, which was viewed by Reuters. “However, we firmly believe that agreements of this nature contribute to the degradation of the rule of law in the United States.”

A&O Shearman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firm said in an internal memo after its deal was announced that its agreement, which also included a $125 million pro bono pledge, was consistent with its "core values."

More than 800 law firms signed court briefs on Friday denouncing Trump's executive orders targeting law firms, warning they "seek to cow every other firm, large and small, into submission." The executive orders called on officials to cancel federal contracts held by the firms' clients and restricted access by their lawyers to federal buildings and officials.

Four firms — Susman Godfrey; WilmerHale; Jenner & Block; and Perkins Coie — are suing the administration over the orders against them, arguing that they violate protections for free speech and due process under the U.S. Constitution.

Judges have issued orders so far blocking provisions of the orders against WilmerHale; Jenner; and Perkins Coie. Susman filed its lawsuit on Friday.

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