Lawyer who once said BigLaw is too woke obtains 1 of 2 TROs granted to large firms suing over Trump orders
Two law firms obtained temporary restraining orders Friday that block parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that suspended their lawyers’ security clearances, restricted their access to government buildings, blocked government hiring of their employees and sought reassessment of their clients’ government contracts. (Photo by Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA/Sipa via the Associated Press)
Updated: Jenner & Block and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr obtained temporary restraining orders Friday that block parts of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that suspended their lawyers’ security clearances, restricted their access to government buildings, blocked government hiring of their employees and sought reassessment of their clients’ government contracts.
WilmerHale is represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, who once said BigLaw is too woke, according to Bloomberg Law and Original Jurisdiction. He is a former solicitor general who left Kirkland & Ellis after the law firm objected to his representation of gun rights clients. His new firm is Clement & Murphy, an appellate boutique firm.
Clement was a potential U.S. Supreme Court contender in Trump’s first term.
“This lawsuit is absolutely critical to vindicating the First Amendment, our adversarial system of justice and the rule of law,” Clement said in a statement published by Bloomberg Law.
Jenner & Block is represented by Cooley.
The executive orders criticized the firms for hiring former special counsel Robert Mueller in the case of WilmerHale and Mueller’s lead prosecutor in the case of Jenner & Block.
Senior U.S. District Judge John D. Bates of the District of Columbia granted the TRO in the Jenner & Block case, and Senior U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon of the District of Columbia granted the TRO in the WilmerHale case. Both are appointees of former President George W. Bush, Above the Law reports.
Law.com, the New York Times, Reuters and Bloomberg Law (here and here) have coverage.
Both judges commented on the impact of the orders if carried out.
“Considering the firmwide effects of the executive order, it threatens the existence of the firm,” Bates said in the Jenner & Block case, according to the Reuters report on his remarks.
“The injuries to plaintiff here would be severe and would spill over to its clients and the justice system at large. The public interest demands protecting against harms of this magnitude,” Leon wrote in the WilmerHale case, as noted by the Volokh Conspiracy.
Bates blocked parts of the order seeking to reassess federal contracts by Jenner & Block’s clients and restricting access to government buildings. Jenner & Block did not seek to block the provision regarding security clearances.
Leon denied WilmerHale’s request regarding security clearances but blocked sections of the order denying access to government buildings and seeking to reassess its clients’ government contracts.
In a third suit filed by Perkins Coie, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District of Columbia issued a TRO March 12. The TRO did not affect part of the order regarding security clearances because the firm did not request it.
Trump’s order cited Perkins Coie’s hiring of Fusion GPS, a company that compiled the so-called Steele dossier with allegations that the Russian government was trying to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Perkins Coie is represented by Williams & Connolly.
Updated March 31 at 2:30 p.m. to report that Paul Clement represents Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
