‘Big law cowards’: Firms that caved to Trump face partner and client exodus

Law firms that decided to go along with an unprecedented aggressive push from President Donald Trump are now facing serious consequences, including internal conflicts and major losses of clients and staff. This is very different from the small number of firms that chose to stand up to the administration’s pressure, which has worked well for them in court.

As reported by MSNBC, one clear example of the negative fallout is happening at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. This firm was one of the many that made a deal with the Trump administration in April to avoid an executive order that would have affected their businesses. This choice has caused a lot of unhappiness inside the firm, especially in its San Francisco office. Reuters reported about a poster from the ‘Big Law Cowards’ campaign asked ‘Big law, stop bending the knee,’ and now it seems to have been right.

Seven partners are leaving Willkie Farr & Gallagher to join Cooley, a firm that has deliberately taken on cases representing other law firms fighting against the former president’s policies. In addition, as many as fifteen junior lawyers have also said they plan to leave. Other firms that took a similar approach are dealing with the same problems. Paul Weiss, another firm that made an agreement with the White House, has seen multiple partners leave.

DC law firms that backed Trump losing members

One high-profile example is the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who left Paul Weiss to join Jenner & Block, one of the firms that decided to fight back against the administration. So many partners have left Paul Weiss in recent weeks because of its deal with the former president, and keeping track of all the departures has been hard. This steady loss of important people highlights how deeply their choices have hurt them internally.

Beyond losing staff, the firms that gave in to the administration are also losing a lot of business from corporate clients. At least eleven big companies are actively moving their legal work away from firms that made deals with the Trump administration. Instead, these companies are giving more business to firms that were targeted but refused to settle.

Corporate legal advisors have expressed serious concerns about whether they can trust firms that backed down, wondering if these firms will really fight hard for their clients in tough legal battles and high-pressure negotiations when they wouldn’t even defend their own independence against presidential pressure. This change in client loyalty shows how much these firms’ reputations and credibility have suffered in the legal world.

The overall strategy of giving in, which was supposed to create stability and keep clients happy, has clearly failed. Instead of gaining peace, these firms are losing clients, valuable partners, and junior lawyers, along with a major drop in their professional standing in the legal industry. It’s now clear that the terms of their agreements with the former president were much worse than they first thought, making the damage even greater.