Trump Has His Law Firms Right Where He Wants Them

Opinion|Trump Has His Law Firms Right Where He Wants Them

Nine major corporate law firms have groveled before President Trump by agreeing to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services to the executive branch. The immediate result of these capitulations is clear: The firms avoid federal sanctions and remain free, for now, to enjoy the boom times in their corner of the legal market. But another consequence is also true, if less immediately apparent.

By entering into agreements with the Trump administration, these law firms have become subsidiaries of it, as the president intends to remind them in degrading and humiliating ways. The firms’ coming nightmare will last a lot longer than their current reprieve.

Perkins Coie, which has a major presence in Washington, was the first firm to receive a targeted executive order as punishment for representing clients of whom the president disapproved, specifically Democratic politicians. Perkins promptly went to court, and after winning an immediate restraining order, earned a smashing victory, as Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the executive order violated the Constitution.

The second firm threatened by Mr. Trump, the New York-based Paul, Weiss, chose instead to cut a deal on March 20. The firm escaped the sanctions, including the possible loss of federal contracts by its clients, and in return promised $40 million in free legal assistance to causes embraced by Mr. Trump. In quick succession, eight other firms — Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Skadden, Milbank, Willkie, Simpson Thacher, A&O Shearman and Cadwalader — made similar capitulations, and in total the firms have promised the president about $1 billion in legal services.

The surrender of Paul, Weiss and the other firms reflects broader trends in the legal industry. Until the last couple of decades, the world of big law firms was a staid one. Partners tended to remain at one firm for their entire careers, and their compensation moved along in lock step with that of their colleagues who graduated from law school in the same year.

No longer. Top lawyers with big books of business now operate as free agents, and they move from firm to firm based on which one will pay them the most. The boom in private equity, which produces frequent transactions requiring lots of expensive legal help, has also fattened firms’ bottom lines. Few have thrived more in this environment than Paul, Weiss, which has successfully poached big rainmakers from competitors and pays these lawyers as much as $25 million a year.