As Donald Trump wages a blunt attack on major law firms and the justice department, some lawyers are starting their own law firms and challenging the administration’s effort to cut funding and punish civil servants.
The decision to start the firms come as the judiciary has emerged as a major bulwark against the Trump administration. More than 200 lawsuits have been filed challenging various Trump administration policies. And there have been more than 70 rulings blocking the administration from executing various policies.
Daniel Jacobson thought the knowledge of niche rules governing administrative and funding laws he had accumulated as general counsel in the office of management and budget during Joe Biden’s administration would be “totally useless” in normal times. But when the Trump administration quickly began mass cuts in funding for agencies, programs and groups he saw a “gap in the market”.
Many of the groups affected by the cuts were organizations that could not afford to pay major law firms steep legal fees. Jacobson, a former associate at Arnold & Porter, thought his specialized knowledge combined with his litigation experience could help. He started his own firm in February.
Jacobson’s decision came as many firms have been wary of taking on pro-bono work challenging the administration’s interests. As Trump has directed punishing executive orders at firms that challenged him, several of the country’s largest and most prestigious law firms have reached agreements in which they have agreed to provide pro-bono legal services that align with both the firm and the Trump administration’s interests.
Jacobson’s firm already has five cases, including ones to block efforts to dismantle the National Endowment for the Humanities and an office of management and budget page tracking appropriations. The firm is now staffed with six attorneys who previously served as lawyers in various government agencies, including the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the federal programs bench of the justice department, which defends the executive branch and agencies in civil litigation.
“I don’t need to worry about trimming my sails out of fear of being targeted or something like that. I can just take the cases that I think are important and should be taken,” Jacobson said in an interview earlier this month.
Earlier this year, major law firms reported a swell in applications as lawyers applied for jobs amid a mass exodus from government service. But after firms began striking deals with the Trump administration in March, the attractiveness of working at the firms may have cooled. Some lawyers have quit major firms in protest.
“The new firms are a response to the political moment and what’s happening to lawyers and other people in society that are being targeted,” said Scott Cummings, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who studies legal ethics. “They’re doing it in this very specific context, that I think is great, because they’re also filling in gaps now that we’re seeing happening in the context of these big law firms that are no longer that interested maybe in bringing cases that are going to put them on the wrong side of the government.”
Clayton Bailey and Jessica Merry Samuels, two justice department attorneys, quit their government jobs this year and launched their own firm earlier this month focused on protecting civil servants targeted by the Trump administration.
Bailey was working in the federal programs bench when Trump won the election, and initially thought there was a chance he would be able to continue the non-partisan work that justice department lawyers have long been able to do. He quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen.
“As soon as I sort of got that feeling that I was going to get things that were being done that were unlawful, that I was going to be asked to defend, I realized that it wasn’t going to be the place for me for the next four years,” he said.
He considered joining a non-profit organization or a major law firm, but ultimately decided to start his own firm.
“It offers you the autonomy to be creative in the work,” he said.
At least one more high-profile lawyer also recently set out on his own. Abbe Lowell, a longtime Washington attorney, left his partnership at the firm Winston & Strawn to start his own firm in May defending officials who have faced attacks from Trump. Their clients include Mark Zaid, a prominent national security lawyer who had his security clearance revoked by Trump, Miles Taylor, a former homeland security official who also had his security clearance revoked, and the New York attorney general, Letitia James. The firm’s first two hires were Rachel Cohen and Brenna Trout Frey, associates who quit their jobs at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom after the firm signed an agreement capitulating to Trump.
“I was drawn to work somewhere that can move faster than traditional legal organizations,” Cohen said. “While many places are doing important work, the need for rapid action right now is immense and often best accomplished by smaller, high-performing shops that respond both proactively and reactively to the near-daily shifts in the American legal system.”
