Trump’s crackdown on law firms is chilling the future of pro bono legal work

Amid an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration against large law firms aligned against him, a worry has set in that types of pro bono legal work, where hundreds of lawyers from large firms mobilize in humanitarian crises, may no longer be politically viable.

When 85,000 people fled Afghanistan in 2021, lawyers from major law firms stepped up to file their political asylum petitions. When the names of more than 700 detainees at Guantanamo Bay were released in 2004, lawyers from large law firms became counsel for many of the men. And when transgender people across the US need help with changing their names, lawyers from large law firms are often the ones helping them to file the paperwork. Yet now, amid an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration against large law firms aligned against him, a worry has set in that types of pro bono legal work, where hundreds of lawyers from large firms mobilize in humanitarian crises, may no longer be politically viable. That’s because President Donald Trump’s executive orders against a handful of major law firms barring them from federal buildings and punishing their clients with government contracts, among other restrictions, have prompted other major firms, including longtime pro bono powerhouses, to cut deals with the White House. “The sea has parted,” Juan Proaño, the CEO of LULAC, one of the most prominent civil rights litigants for Hispanics in the US. “There are some firms that are much more reserved about their engagement.” Several law firm partners who have done significant pro bono work in the past told CNN that lawyers at large firms now may think twice before pitching cases that would step too far into politics. “I know from talking to organizations, they are having a hell of a time finding firms to partner with,” one senior partner at a large law firm told CNN. “Firms are really gun shy to take on cases that may upset the administration.”