Northeast Ohio lawyers say Trump’s assault on firms hurts everyone

Cleveland lawyers say that President Trump isn’t just attacking their profession but its clients. Who could be anyone.

“We chuckle when we quote the Shakespeare line, ‘Let’s kill all the lawyers,’ until we need a lawyer,” said immigration lawyer Richard Herman. “Then ‘Wow, somebody’s fighting for me!’”

Among 116 executive orders through April 8, Trump imposed restrictions on five big law firms, none with Cleveland offices. “To the extent permitted by law,” he limited the firms’ access to federal buildings, records, and officials. He banned them from practicing diversity, equity and inclusion. He ordered his staff not to hire anyone from the firms without higher approval. He banned federal contracts with businesses that would hire those firms for some of that work.

Trump also told the Justice Department to review all lawyers who’d opposed the government since 2016 for possible sanctions and discipline. And his Equal Employment Opportunity Commission wrote 20 law firms last month for information about their DEI programs.

Local lawyers say these orders violate the constitutional rights of free speech, free association, due process, equal protection, and petition for redress of grievances. Suboth Chandra, former Cleveland law director, said, “This is part of what dictators do.”

Trump posted “Our justice system is betrayed when it is misused to achieve political ends.” That’s just what critics say he’s doing: fulfilling his campaign promise of “retribution.”

The orders name some lawyers who’d investigated, prosecuted or opposed him or his allies. The best known, Robert Mueller, researched connections between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, resulting in successful criminal cases. Trump also cited firms for representing Hilary Clinton and “activist” donor George Soros. 

Without naming names, he sanctioned the firm of Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and a firm whose lawyer won a $786 million libel settlement from former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Bedrock American principles”

In sanctioning some firms, Trump wrote, “My Administration is committed to addressing the significant risks associated with law firms, particularly so-called “Big Law” firms, that engage in conduct detrimental to critical American interests. Many firms take actions that threaten public safety and national security, limit constitutional freedoms, degrade the quality of American elections, or undermine bedrock American principles.” 

At last report, three of the sanctioned firms had sued and won temporary restraining orders. But the U.S. Department of Justice suggested in a brief that it might ignore one of the TRO’s.

A fourth sanctioned firm vowed to fight. A fifth made a settlement to escape the order. Eight other firms made deals to preempt orders.

According to the White House, the firms have agreed to ban DEI, represent clients from both parties, and do a total of $940 million in free work for Trump’s agenda ranging from fighting antisemitism to negotiating tariffs.

He claimed that the Paul Weiss firm acknowledged “wrongdoing” by a former partner whose investigation helped win 34 felony convictions against Trump last year for falsifying business records about hush money for porn star Stormy Daniels. But the firm has not acknowledged wrongdoing publicly or in a leaked private memo about the settlement.

Trump boasted about cowing the firms. “They’re just saying, ‘Where do I sign? Where do I sign?’” His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, added, “Big Law continues to bend the knee to President Trump because they know they were wrong, and he looks forward to putting their pro bono legal concessions toward implementing his America First agenda.”

Fighting back

The Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association endorsed an American Bar Association statement: “…We will not stay silent in the face of efforts to remake the legal profession into something that rewards those who agree with the government and punishes those who do not…”

The Perkins Coie firm called its sanctions “an unlawful attack on the freedom of all Americans to select counsel of their choice without fear of retribution or punishment from the government.” The suit has drawn support from more than 500 firms, though few of the nation’s biggest.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to defend the profession. Congresswoman Shontel Brown told The Land, “Trump is attacking law firms because he’s attacking the rule of law. He doesn’t think the law should apply to him, which is appropriate because he’s a felon. And he wants to punish law firms that take positions against him in the hopes that fewer and fewer lawyers will challenge his unlawful actions.”

Calls seeking comments from Ohio Republicans — the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, and Ohio’s wholly Republican Supreme Court — went unreturned.

Messages also went unreturned by several big Cleveland firms. At his small firm, Marc Dann, a Democrat and former Ohio attorney general, said, “The tall-building firms make their living to a large extent peddling influence over the federal government.”

Big firms in Cleveland and elsewhere tout their know-how and know-who. For instance, the website of Cleveland’s Squire Patton Boggs says, “Our preeminent Public Policy Practice can develop effective strategies to make sure you are heard at the right time, by the right people.” Cleveland’s Calfee Halter & Griswold says, “Calfee’s Government Relations and Legislation practice has been respected for its political savvy and effectiveness, legal expertise, honesty, and relationships with all levels of local, state, and federal government on both sides of the political aisle.” 

Unsettled by settlements

Most local lawyers interviewed criticized the settlements. Herman said, “This kissing of the ring of the Mafia don is appalling.”

Civil rights lawyer Avery Friedman defended them. “I don’t see it as any kind of capitulation. I think they wound up neutralizing Trump.” He criticized Trump’s attack but said, “It sounds scarier than in practical terms it really is.”

Other lawyers saw plenty of harm. They said they need to work with regulators and to get security clearance for privileged information about immigrants, troops and more.

Chandra said firms that surrender won’t find peace. “If they capitulate, there’ll be more demands, and the erosion of the rule of law will be more extreme.” He pointed to a couple of universities that have met Trump’s demands and encountered more.

Chandra especially criticized Trump for attacking DEI at firms and elsewhere. Trump calls DEI discrimination. Chandra sees it as a small step to reduce discrimination. “This administration supports uniformity, inequity and exclusion.”

Trickle-down fear

Lawyers say that the orders restrict a few firms and intimidate many. They worry that some lawyers won’t take cases against the government, and others may take them in name without fighting hard. Charles Tyler, who is defending East Cleveland’s former chief of staff against federal bribery charges, said, “That’s not how it’s supposed to be in America.”

Among many curbs on freedom, Trump has ordered investigations of opponents, revoked their security clearances and Secret Service protections, ordered new requirements for eligible voters, erased climate data and had documented immigrants arrested for protests. Herman said, “It’s almost a police state.”

Local lawyers vowed to keep fighting. Immigration lawyer Margaret Wong said, “We need to go on and for the next four years work harder than before, fighting for our people and protecting them.”