Mere hours after the Trump administration lodged a retaliatory executive order against WilmerHale, the firm has struck back with a lawsuit filed by conservative superlawyer Paul Clement.
Welcome to the #resistance, man.
It’s been a wild 24 hours for Biglaw with Skadden reportedly trying to snivel its way out of Trump’s ire and Jenner & Block suing the administration. Now WilmerHale is taking the latter route. After a week of trying to sort out the impact of the Paul Weiss capitulation and the Skadden story hinting that the industry might be trending toward retreat, this morning a couple firms declared a day may come when the courage of Biglaw fails, but it is not this day.
The complaint provides some lawyerly humor in calling out the unlawful retaliatory purpose behind the order too:
While most litigation requires discovery to unearth retaliatory motive, the Order makes no secret of its intent to punish WilmerHale for its past and current representations of clients before the Nation’s courts and for its perceived connection to the views that Mr. Mueller expressed as Special Counsel.
Well, you don’t want to get into heavy discovery with this guy… you don’t want your sensitive materials to end up stacked in his toilet.
When Clement wrote his report blessing the DOJ’s decision to let Eric Adams skate, it seemed as though he cynically tried to split the baby by comically handwaving public indications of a corrupt quid pro quo but balking the administration’s bid to dismiss charges without prejudice. At the time, it felt as though he wanted to balance maintaining his conservative legal movement bona fides with his being actually smart and knowing that this was a bogus deal. Whether we were right or wrong about that speculation in the moment, Clement seems uninterested in avoiding the Trump administration’s ire right now. Trump’s Biglaw assault is all about retaliatory strikes against lawyers for showing up on the other side of the “v” from him and this is a very public line crossing.
Here’s the complaint:
Earlier: WilmerHale Becomes The Latest Firm Targeted By Trump
Eric Adams Gets Helpful Assist From Paul Clement
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
