Two law firms that have faced retribution from President Donald Trump fired back on Friday.
Jenner & Block and WilmerHale—which Trump targeted in executive orders earlier this week—filed separate lawsuits accusing the administration of violating their First Amendment rights.
“The President’s sweeping attack on WilmerHale (and other firms) is unprecedented and unconstitutional,” said Paul Clement, a lawyer representing WilmerHale.
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Jenner & Block also sued the Trump administration on Friday, saying the president’s executive order hinders its lawyers’ ability to “zealously advocate for its clients.”
“We expect to prevail quickly,” the firm said in a statement.
WilmerHale previously employed FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, who investigated ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Jenner & Block had previously employed Andrew Weissmann, who worked on the Mueller investigation and has been a fierce critic of the administration.
Trump dubbed Weissmann a “bad guy” at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump’s executive orders against Jenner & Block and WilmerHale, filed on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, canceled the firms’ federal government contracts, stripped their employees of security clearances, and barred employees from being hired by the government in the future.
The president further accused Jenner & Block of discriminating against its employees “based on race and other categories prohibited by civil rights laws, including through the use of race-based ‘targets,‘” and engaging in “obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends.”
Jenner & Block and Wilmer Hale’s acts of defiance come on the heels of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison giving in to Trump’s demands on Thursday, reaching a deal with the president to drop an executive order targeting the firm in exchange for a series of concessions.
This included contributing $40 million of pro bono legal services toward causes Trump has championed, including “the President’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and other mutually agreed projects,” as well as pledging to represent clients regardless of political affiliation.
Perkins Coie, which conducted legal work for the Democratic party during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was the first firm to contest one of the administration’s executive orders targeting law firms, filing suit in federal court on March 11.
“[The executive order’s] plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the president perceives as adverse to the views of his administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients,” the firm’s suit said.
Jenner & Block has created a website, Jenner Stands Firm, to share its filings as well as comments from law professors and newspapers about Trump’s executive orders.
