Trump vs Big Law: A political war against legal powerhouses | How India Remains Immune |

In a series of executive orders, complaints and inquiries against America’s most prominent law firms, president Donald Trump in his second term has shifted his focus to the legal giants of the country accusing them of political bias, anti-national activities leading to suspension of security clearances. All these actions are against law firms/lawyers who have crossed paths with the POTUS in the past and somewhere displeased him. A majority of these law firms were either inclined against trump or was involved in bringing charges against him in his legal matters. With such actions against these firms serious questions have been raised against the independence of law firms and lawyers in the United States. It is very much clear by now that these firms and individuals are handpicked by trump from his “lawyers hitlist”. However, in a democracy like USA, law firms and lawyers play a major role in upholding rule of law, maintaining accountability and ensuring that judiciary remains to be independent.

President Trump and his administration hinted of something like this in the very first week he assumed office when he fired an entire section of lawyers from Department of Justice who had worked on different cases against Trump under the Biden administration. This also included the district attorney for New York. After this on 6th of March , POTUS signed the first executive order against Washington law firm Perkins Coie for allegedly taking Democratic Party money to hire the opposition research firm that commissioned the Russia dossier about Trump and his campaign. While signing this order it was the president’s statement that “It is an absolute honour to sign”. The order also revoked the firm and its member’s security clearance citing DEI practices. However, six days later a district judge put a partial stay on this order. Then on 20th of March, the president rescinded the order against Paul, Weiss after reaching a $40 million settlement in probono legal services for trump administration.

However Trump’s gravy train did not stop here, on 25th of March, he signed another order against Chicago based Jenner & Block for quote(executive order) “engages in obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends, supports attacks against women and children based on a refusal to accept the biological reality of sex, and backs the obstruction of efforts to prevent illegal aliens from committing horrific crimes and trafficking deadly drugs within our borders”. The firm responded by stating that the actual reason for this maybe employing Robert Mueller who was an ex-special counsel who investigated and pleaded before court regarding alleged Russian interreference in 2016 elections. After two days of the Jenner order, POTUS again signed an executive order this time against largest firm of Washington Wilmer Hale which is the former firm of above mentioned Robert Mueller.  The White House has made clear these firms are being punished because of their partners’ or clients’ political work and ties to criminal investigations that probed Trump. The order against Wilmer specifically mentions firm’s ties with Mueller.

On 29th of March law firms Wilmer Hale and Jenner & Block sued trump and his administration for passing of unconstitutional orders against them and POTUS’s attempt to pick a bone. The suits against Trump have come at a moment when the entire sentiment in legal community is in shock and being apprehensive of Trump. As per a report of Wall Street Journal, the sentiment in top tier law firms is either to succumb to POTUS’s policy or go down. The report also mentions how Tier 1 law firms have been retreating themselves to avoid being on Trump’s hitlist by not taking up political cases or not taking executive panels. The actions of Trump administration is going to have an adverse impact on the legal profession and independence of judiciary since it is normalising targeting of judiciary through executive powers which in turn may damage the legal system of the States.

Fortunately, the Indian legal fraternity has managed to remain shielded from such instances of political pressure due to absence of such a heavy political divide among lawyers. The Indian legal environment has been one where Indian law firms and lawyers always have been able to consider cases independently even if they are politically sensitive. However the question that arises is that Can India ever face such a situation where its legal community is being intimidated with executive power. The answer remains that it is highly unlikely that we would face such a situation since the India legal fraternity and judiciary is perhaps the most independent of all and unlike the States, we have always been able to separate work and political inclinations. We are fortunate to have a system where the work of justice delivery is taken to be very sacrosanct and of high order unlike countries like the USA where law firms are entirely driven by profit motives and have to operate under immense political & corporate pressure leading to law becoming about personal interests rather than justice delivery.