Trump’s Strategy in Law Firm Cases: Lose, Don’t Appeal, Yet Prevail

The Trump administration is ordinarily quick to appeal its losses. When courts in recent weeks blocked President Trump’s tariff plans and his takeover of National Guard troops in California, government lawyers filed appeals within hours. The administration has also filed 19 emergency applications with the Supreme Court since the president took office.

But administration lawyers have done nothing to challenge a series of stinging rulings rejecting Mr. Trump’s efforts to punish prominent law firms for what he called “conduct detrimental to critical American interests” by representing clients and causes not to his liking.

The administration’s unconventional litigation strategy is telling, said W. Bradley Wendel, a law professor at Cornell who is an authority on legal ethics.

“They knew that these were losing positions from the beginning and were not actually hoping to win in court, but rather to intimidate firms into settling, as many firms did,” he said. “Now that they have racked up the four losses in district courts, it is not surprising that they are not appealing, because I don’t think they ever thought these were serious positions.”

Three rulings permanently blocked Mr. Trump’s executive orders in cases brought by law firms that chose to fight: Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. A judge has temporarily blocked a fourth executive order, against Susman Godfrey, and will almost certainly strike it down.

But many more firms chose to capitulate to Mr. Trump’s demands in the face of threats to lift security clearances, cancel contracts and bar entry to government buildings. Among the firms that promised to provide a cumulative total of many hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono representation to causes favored by the administration were Paul Weiss, Skadden and Latham & Watkins.