A top lawyer in the government contracts section of a law firm targeted for investigations by President Donald Trump over its work with Democrats moved to a new firm.
Alex Canizares, the second-most senior lawyer on the government contracting team at Perkins Coie, joined Vinson & Elkins on Monday, the firm announced. Public records show Canizares has worked for clients including Booz Allen Hamilton and security contractors that work with the State Department.
His move comes just over a month after Trump signed an executive order that described Perkins Coie as a security threat, suspended the security clearances of its personnel, and required that federal contractors disclose whether they work with the law firm. A few days later, Perkins convinced a judge to pause the order, but it said key clients had already told the firm to stand down, and it worried about losing their business.
Canizares was the vice-chair of the government contracts team at Perkins and will be the cohead of Vinson’s government contracts group. He told Business Insider that his move to Vinson was in the works for “several months” and that he was laying the groundwork for it before the executive action targeting Perkins Coie came down on March 6.
“There’s a lot of changes underway in the new administration focused on procurement,” he said. Vinson & Elkins “saw me as someone who could come in and help really grow and expand on certain areas that are aligned with what the firm is trying to do.”
The Department of Government Efficiency, a White House office linked to Elon Musk, has pressed federal agencies to end contracts and slash staff that it deems wasteful or inconsistent with Trump’s priorities. Big government contractors, including Accenture, Deloitte, Leidos, and Booz, are among those whose contracts have been singled out for termination.
Trump has taken executive action against several Big Law firms. Some, like Perkins Coie, have sued the administration, while others have cut deals with Trump — sometimes even before they’ve been named in an executive order. The settling firms have agreed to devote pro bono time to some of Trump’s preferred causes and committed to stopping DEI initiatives.
Hugh Simons, a former business leader at a major law firm who is now a consultant, told Business Insider that he expects more partners at law firms targeted by Trump’s executive orders will try to move. Clients are worried that even if judges formally halt Trump’s orders against the firms, they will face blowback, Simons said.
“It’s weeks, not months,” for the pace of lawyer moves to pick up steam, he said in an interview on April 10. “I would love to be wrong. This is just an awful, awful thing.”
Canizares said he represents contractors accused of wrongdoing by whistleblowers and in challenges to federal contracting decisions, among other situations. He expects that the Trump administration’s cutback on contracts could lead to more work, though some clients are seeking ways short of a lawsuit to reduce the risk of financial loss.
“I do expect that there’s gonna be a wave of claims that come out of the terminations that we’re seeing,” he said.
A representative for Perkins Coie didn’t respond to a comment request on Monday evening. The firm said in a court filing last month that its government contracts team had 13 people working on 69 matters.
