Trump’s Battle With Big Law Firms Heads Into 2026: What to Know

Bloomberg Law: “There was perhaps no bigger story last year in the world of Big Law than President Donald Trump’s attacks on several of the nation’s largest law firms through punitive executive orders due to political affiliations and adversarial hires. Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, WilmerHale, and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison were hit with executive orders that sought to cut security clearances for the firms’ lawyers and directed federal agencies to review contracts with the firms’ clients. The first four firms sued the administration over the EOs, while the last—Paul Weiss—struck a deal with the White House to rescind the EO by promising millions of dollars’ worth of free legal services. That deal became the framework for eight subsequent arrangements with other top law firms to avoid retribution from the administration. Four judges ruled in separate cases that the administration’s actions targeting the law firms were unconstitutional. The administration appealed the decisions last summer. The cases are now in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which directed the four litigating firms to file motions addressing the duplicative nature of the cases with a move toward consolidating them.

• Given the government shutdown and other extensions granted by the court, the firms now have until Jan. 26 to file their motions. The DOJ has also introduced new lawyers to argue its side, including the former Kansas attorney general and current Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli. Here’s a snapshot of where the four litigating firms and the nine dealmaking firms are at as the new year begins…”