Regardless, Mr. Trump’s moves have the potential — and perhaps the goal — to undermine people’s ability to challenge their government. “It is the president’s deliberate intent to chill the nation’s largest law firms from representing cases that he dislikes,” said Cecillia D. Wang, the national legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, which has joined with major firms to bring cases against the administration. “I think you will see some law firms starting to back away.”
Deepak Gupta, the founder of the law firm Gupta Wessler, said he knew of lawyers at top corporate law firms who recently informed some pro bono clients that they could no longer represent them because their firms were scared by Mr. Trump’s executive orders and memo.
“It is already having an effect,” said Mr. Gupta, who has sued the Trump administration on behalf of a fired member of the National Labor Relations Board and a union representing employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “This isn’t about something that might happen in the future.”
There are parallels between Mr. Trump’s attacks on the legal industry and his campaign to constrain or weaken other pillars of civic society. Mr. Trump and his aides are suing or investigating media outlets that have produced critical coverage. And his administration is threatening to withhold huge sums of federal money from universities that don’t hew to his demands.
Even before Mr. Trump’s orders against law firms, the legal community was struggling to keep up with his administration’s heavy volume of legally questionable actions. Many smaller law firms and public interest groups have the desire and expertise to represent clients taking on the administration, but they often rely on larger firms’ resources — including nationwide armies of associates and paralegals who can be dispatched at a moment’s notice — to help with the workload.
Large firms often handle such cases on a pro bono basis, meaning they generally don’t get paid for the work. It was not a coincidence that Mr. Trump blasted major firms for conducting “harmful activity through their powerful pro bono practices.” As part of their recent deals with Mr. Trump, Paul Weiss and Skadden agreed to perform tens of millions of dollars of pro bono legal work for causes and clients, such as veterans, that Mr. Trump supports….