Updated March 22, 2026 – Above the Law: Biglaw Executive Order Fight Heads To D.C. Circuit (For Real This Time). After dropping and un-dropping its appeals, DOJ now has a date to explain itself…The DOJ filed a full-throated defense of the EOs, pointing to the yellow-bellied nine Biglaw firms (A& O Shearman; Cadwalader; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Milbank; Paul, Weiss; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; and Wilkie Farr) as evidence the EOs were totally constitutional. The fighting four firms are expected to file their briefs by March 27 (the DOJ will then have until April 10 to respond). And then oral arguments are on for May and the appellate court will weigh in on whether retaliation against law firms is somehow a “core presidential power.”
Follow up to Just Security Litigation Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Action Against Law Firms and Lawyers (Executive Order 14230 – Perkins Coie) (Executive Order 14246 – Jenner & Block) (Executive Order – WilmerHale) (Presidential Memorandum) – And AP – President Donald Trump announced deals Friday with five law firms that will allow them to avoid the prospect of punishing executive orders and require them to together provide hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of free legal services for causes his administration says it supports. The resolutions reflect the Republican president’s continued success in bending prominent law firms to his will as they seek to cut deals with his administration to avoid being targeted by White House sanctions like the ones confronting others in the legal community. The White House said that the firms of Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Latham & Watkins LLP would each provide $125 million in free legal work for causes including veterans affairs and combatting anti-Semitism. As part of the agreement, the administration agreed to withdraw letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission demanding information about whether the firms were engaged in discriminatory hiring practices…”
See the most recent action – Washington Post [no paywall] – “The Trump administration said Tuesday that it still wanted to defend President Donald Trump’s executive orders sanctioning several law firms, abruptly reversing course from its position a day earlier. Judges last year blocked Trump’s orders aimed at the firms, which had hired his perceived foes or took on cases he disliked. The Justice Department was appealing those rulings and trying to restore the orders, which demanded that the firms lose access to government contracts and buildings. On Monday evening, the agency said in a filing that it wanted to abandon the appeals, essentially admitting defeat. The law firms hailed that decision, with one saying the administration “capitulated.” But in a startling turnaround less than 24 hours later, the administration wrote in a brief filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that it was seeking to withdraw its motion from a day earlier….”
See also The New York Times Gift Article: “Trump Administration, in Reversal, Tries to Continue Fight Against Law Firms. The administration told a court on Monday that it was abandoning its defense of executive orders targeting the firms. But on Tuesday, the Justice Department abruptly changed its position.
