Maddow Blog-Microsoft drops a law firm that appeased Trump, hires firm that's fighting Trump

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Law firms that struck deals with the White House thought it’d protect their bottom line. What if their assumptions were wrong?

Law firms that struck deals with Trump thought it’d protect their bottom line. But what if their assumptions had it backwards?

Larger arc: It's not too late for the firms that chose presidential appeasement to change course.

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-01T19:28:18.018Z

Law firms that struck deals with Trump thought it’d protect their bottom line. But what if their assumptions had it backwards?

Larger arc: It's not too late for the firms that chose presidential appeasement to change course.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/microsoft-drops-law-firm-appeased-trump-hires-firm-s-fighting-trump-rcna204152

When Donald Trump launched an unprecedented offensive against prominent law firms, the businesses faced a difficult decision. If they appeased the president, they’d (theoretically) avoid White House punishments — penalties that the firms’ clients might have a problem with — but their reputations would suffer.....

As for the firms that went along with the White House’s demands, the news is far less good. Not only are the firms starting to realize that their deals with the president are worse than they first realized, at least one of the firms is also learning that the plan to keep prominent clients happy might be backfiring. The New York Times reported that Microsoft “has dropped a law firm that settled with the administration in favor of one that is fighting it.”

Large companies like Microsoft often farm out legal work to dozens or even hundreds of firms and may move business depending on circumstances, like pricing, expertise or potential conflicts. Microsoft declined to comment on why it changed law firms in a significant case last week, but the switch suggests that a firm that chose to fight the Trump administration could still attract an important client.

While the reporting has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the switch has been confirmed in official court filings. About a week ago, attorneys at one firm — Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, which recently reached an agreement with Trump and his team — informed a court in Delaware that it would no longer be representing Microsoft in an acquisitions case......

In the meantime, firms are also contending with a new pressure campaign. NBC News reported last week that a progressive group has launched a media campaign targeting the same firms that have already reached deals with the president.

‘Big law, stop bending the knee,’ reads a poster from the ‘Big Law Cowards’ campaign by the liberal nonprofit group Demand Justice. The group says the ads will be wheatpasted strategically around Washington on Thursday near the locations of the firms that have reached deals with the administration. The group will also have a mobile billboard circulating with ads criticizing the firms, along with a broader digital campaign.

In case this isn’t obvious, the underlying point of these efforts isn’t to chastise the firms for making the wrong decision; it’s to remind the firms that it’s not too late to reverse course and join the ranks of the firms resisting Trump’s gambit.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Nothing good comes from sucking up to Trump

Doesn't sound like these lawyers were very smart.

[Raine1967]

2. My husband works for one of the firms targeted.

They told every employee of his firm that they are staying with DEI because it represents what its values are.

Other than that, they are ignoring the administration. I am so glad he works there.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. My oldest child is a partner at a top 20 law firm

His firm is not going to sign up with trump

[Raine1967]

6. +1

[58Sunliner]

4. Kudos to MSFT.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. The law firms who agreed to trump's demands may want to rethink their "deals"

Judge Beryl Howell’s 102-page opinion excoriates Trump, calling his targeting of the firm “an unprecedented attack” on the judicial system.

Judge strikes down Trump’s ‘unconstitutional’ executive order against law firm Perkins Coie www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...

— Bubbajonz (@bubbajonz.bsky.social) 2025-05-03T16:19:32.342Z

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-executive-order-perkins-coie-unconstitutional-howell-rcna204601

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie on Friday night, ruling his targeting of the law firm unconstitutional.

In a 102-page opinion, Howell excoriated Trump and called his efforts against Perkins Coie “an unprecedented attack” on the principles of the American judicial system.

“No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,’” she wrote.

It is the first ruling in which a judge has permanently blocked any of Trump’s efforts to target a law firm. In recent months, the president has sought to punish, via executive order, nearly a dozen firms over a range of grievances. Four of them, including Perkins Coie, have pushed back in court, but most have pre-emptively struck deals with the White House to avoid Trump’s wrath, as my colleague Steve Benen has pointed out.....

In her ruling, Howell wrote in a footnote that other law firms have yielded to Trump, but that courts can review the legal merits of a case only when lawyers “make the choice to challenge rather than back down when confronted with government action.”....

Whether the Trump administration plans to appeal Howell’s ruling is unclear. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to MSNBC’s request for comment.

I suspect that some of the firms who caved to trump may be rethinking their cave. For example trump now wants these firms to defend bad or rogue cops on a pro bono basis. Some firms may reconsider these deals https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220247723