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US law firm Perkins Coie has become the latest legal adviser to face action by Donald Trump, with the president signing an executive order suspending security clearance for its employees and forcing a review of its government contracts.
The order, announced on Thursday, stated that Perkins Coie’s representation of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton against Trump in the 2016 presidential race resulted in “a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election”. The order also accused the firm of racial discrimination against its employees.
Trump last month signed a similar order against US law firm Covington & Burling, suspending clearances for any employees of the firm who assisted Jack Smith, the special counsel who led two criminal cases against Trump.
The Perkins Coie order is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to eliminate diversity efforts from the US government. The president has claimed that his predecessor forced “illegal and immoral” discrimination programmes under the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) banner and has pledged to terminate such initiatives.
Perkins Coie previously came under fire in relation to its DEI work when conservative campaigner Edward Blum sued the firm in 2023. Blum, the architect of the Supreme Court victory against affirmative action at US universities, used his success to target law firms’ recruitment practices, leading many to scale back DEI schemes.
“Perkins Coie racially discriminates against its own attorneys and staff, and against applicants,” the Trump order said. “Perkins Coie publicly announced percentage quotas in 2019 for hiring and promotion on the basis of race and other categories prohibited by civil rights laws.”
The order said that the chair of the equal employment opportunity commission would “review the practices of representative large, influential, or industry-leading law firms” for consistency with the Civil Rights Act.
The review would include examination of whether large law firms reserved positions, such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races or promoted individuals “on a discriminatory basis”, Trump said.
Perkins Coie said it had received the executive order and called it “patently unlawful”.
“We intend to challenge it,” the firm said.
Covington said the firm had agreed to work on Smith’s defence when it became apparent he would face a government investigation.
“Covington serves as defence counsel to Jack Smith in his personal, individual capacity,” the firm said. “We look forward to defending Mr Smith’s interests and appreciate the trust he has placed in us to do so.”
Trump’s actions over DEI have led a number of top companies and consultancy firms to ditch their diversity programmes. KPMG US has pulled years of DEI reports from its website, while Deloitte US has asked employees working on government contracts to remove gender pronouns from their email signatures.
