Law firms across the US haven't been spared from the Trump administration's broad push for businesses to ditch their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. But for a handful of firms, the scrutiny has been more personal.
To date, Donald Trump has signed individual executive orders targeting five law firms, including investigations of their hiring practices. In response, some of them have cut deals, such as Paul Weiss, which agreed to do pro bono work for causes with the president’s backing. Trump then withdrew the order targeting the firm.
Even some firms that hadn't been targeted specifically made pre-emptive deals. Skadden went to the White House with a pro bono deal that has left the law firm facing a wave of resignations. Some of its young lawyers also published a toolkit “for harnessing collective power to influence firm decision making”.
As we noted in last week’s newsletter, the Trump administration also issued letters to 20 law firms earlier this month, seeking personal information including the sex, phone number and law school of any participant in the targeted firms’ DEI programs, dating back as far as 2015.
