Peter Keisler in The Hill
Board Member Peter Keisler co-wrote an opinion piece in The Hill with Vanita Gupta, former Associate Attorney General, titled “Law firms can’t buy their way out of Trump’s threats—and they shouldn’t try.” The article examines the chilling effect of recent executive orders targeting law firms and the troubling implications of the legal deals some firms have struck with the Trump administration.
Keisler and Gupta warn that these actions could erode access to quality legal representation and undermine the rule of law, and may ultimately backfire on the firms involved.
They write:
The president and his advisors have been gloating. As the White House press secretary put it, “Big Law continues to bend the knee to President Trump.”
Nine firms made deals with the administration rather than fight, eight of them doing so without the administration even issuing an order against them. All of these firms may think they have minimized the damage.
But the true cost is coming into view. Both the orders and the deals threaten to corrode the rule of law and chill access to quality legal representation, and the deals may well backfire on the firms.
No doubt, this assault put the firms in a difficult position. Their leaders may feel they cut savvy deals, giving up little that really mattered. We think that’s wrong.