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news analysis
The president’s use of government power to punish firms is seen by some legal experts as undercutting a basic tenet: the right to a strong legal defense.
- March 12, 2025, 4:57 p.m. ET
President Trump’s retribution campaign against law firms, legal experts and analysts say, is undermining a central tenet of the American legal system — the right to a lawyer to argue vigorously on one’s behalf.
With the stroke of a pen last week, Mr. Trump sought to cripple Perkins Coie, a firm that worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, by stripping its lawyers of security clearances needed to represent some clients and limiting the firm’s access to government buildings and officials.
That action came after he revoked security clearances held by lawyers at Covington & Burling after it was revealed that the firm was helping provide legal advice to Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two federal indictments against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s actions, and open threats of more to come, have shaken law firms across Washington and beyond, leaving them looking at their client lists and wondering whether their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their business. Perkins Coie has acknowledged that in just the few days since Mr. Trump signed the executive order it “has already lost significant revenue” because of clients who have severed their relationship with the firm.
“This is certainly the biggest affront to the legal profession in my lifetime,” said Samuel W. Buell, a longtime professor of law at Duke University and a former federal prosecutor.
A federal judge on Wednesday sided with Perkins Coie in an initial courtroom skirmish with the White House, temporarily barring Mr. Trump’s executive order against the firm from taking effect.
