In continuation of an ongoing campaign against Big Law, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday taking aim at WilmerHale, a law firm linked to his political adversaries that led past investigations into his administration.
The order suspends security clearances for WilmerHale employees, limits their access to federal buildings, and revokes the firm’s government contracts, for what Trump described in his order as engaging in “partisan representations to achieve political ends” and “efforts to discriminate on the basis of race.”
WilmerHale has a team of over 1,100 lawyers across 12 offices in the US and Europe. In 2023, it was ranked as the 45th largest law firm in the country which generated nearly $1.5 billion in revenue, according to The American Lawyer.
A White House fact sheet about the order accused WilmerHale of “rewarding” former FBI Director Robert Mueller and two colleagues with positions at the firm for what it called “a partisan ‘investigation’ against the President and others.”
Muller, a former Marine Corps officer in Vietnam and the FBI Director in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, had spearheaded a special counsel investigation into Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election. The investigation ultimately found insufficient evidence of a link. Muller was a WilmerHale partner before the probe and rejoined it after. He is not listed on the firm’s website.
The executive order follows similar actions against legal powerhouses such as Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling. Trump previously rescinded an order targeting Paul Weiss after the firm agreed to allocate $40 million in pro bono legal work aligned with his administration’s priorities.
A memo from Trump issued on March 22 titled “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court” also authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to sanction law firms that file lawsuits they deem “frivolous” or “vexatious.”
A spokesperson of WilmerHale told Business Insider that the firm has a “longstanding tradition of representing a wide range of clients, including in matters against administrations of both parties,” and that they “look forward to pursuing all appropriate remedies to this unlawful order.”
WilmerHale is among the prominent law firms representing clients in lawsuits that challenge key Trump administration policies. The firm had also filed an amicus brief in January 2024 that called Trump’s attempt to gain immunity in connection to his criminal prosecution for alleged election interference “inconsistent with our Constitution.”
Chris Mattei, an attorney at Connecticut-based law firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder and a former federal prosecutor, said the spree of orders is a constitutional threat.
“If lawyers abandon our duty to protect the rights of those who are targeted by the Government, our democracy will fall,” Mattei told BI in an email.
The White House did not respond to BI’s request for comment.
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