african
woman
isolated
on
gray
background
looking
shy
or
terrified
covering
hiding
her
face
with
hands
peeping
through
fingers
is
shocked
by
horror
movie
or
frightened
by
what
she
saw
concept
Remember
when
nine
major
law
firms
bowed
to
Trump’s
demands,
agreeing
to
vaguely
worded
pro
bono
commitments
to
avoid
retaliatory
executive
orders?
Because
they
sure
hope
Trump
doesn’t!
According
to
American
Lawyer
reporting,
seven
of
the
nine
have
“pledged
to
maintain
independence
in
their
pro
bono
practices”
per
internal
memos.
Promising
to
do
something
would
seem
to
do
incredible
violence
to
the
word
“independence.”
Do
students
“independently”
agreed
to
pay
off
their
loans
when
they
fulfill
their
end
of
a
contractual
agreement?
The
pro
bono
payola
agreements
seemed
a
little
informal
—
most
contracts
aren’t
memorialized
in
all
caps
on
a
social
media
platform
—
but
these
internal
memos
are
giving
a
lot
of
“anticipatory
breach”
energy.
But
three
months
after
the
deals
were
made,
firms
are
staying
quiet
about
how
they
plan
to
fulfill
their
pro
bono
commitments
to
President
Donald
Trump
and
his
administration.
None
of
the
nine
firms
that
made
deals
responded
to
questions
from
The
American
Lawyer
about
pro
bono
work
they’ve
done
that
counts
toward
their
financial
commitments.
No
kidding.
While
the
firms
have
suffered
defections
—
some
very
high
profile
—
over
these
deals,
the
slow
drip
of
departures
would
become
a
rushing
torrent
if
the
firms
went
ahead
and
started
defending
police
brutality
cases…
which
the
Trump
administration
has
explicitly
said
they
will
be
asked
to
do
under
the
agreement.
But
after
all
the
fanfare
surrounding
these
deals,
why
hasn’t
the
administration
called
in
its
debts?
Firms
may
be
keeping
a
low
profile
in
hopes
that
the
president
moves
on
to
something
else,
said
New
York
Law
School
ethics
professor
Rebecca
Roiphe.
“Neither
side
has
an
interest
here
in
pushing
things
too
far
because
the
Trump
administration
has
kind
of
walked
away
with
a
win
here
regardless
of
what
the
courts
do,”
Roiphe
said.And
just
as
firms
don’t
want
negative
attention
that
could
jeopardize
their
good
standing
with
the
administration,
Roiphe
added,
Trump’s
win
over
firms
could
turn
into
a
loss
if
the
president
presses
for
something
firms
can’t
or
won’t
give,
forcing
them
to
fight
him
in
court.
This
would
make
sense
in
normal
times,
but
nothing
about
this
is
normal.
These
parties
do
not
have
equal
bargaining
positions.
Trump
already
proved
that
these
firms
will
cave.
They
forfeited
their
bargaining
position
already.
All
that’s
left
is
him
forgetting
that
he
has
the
upper
hand.
There’s
no
downside
to
Trump
pushing
these
deals
if
it
came
to
it
because
he
holds
all
the
cards
over
these
firms.
He
can
just
reinstate
the
executive
orders.
Are
they
illegal?
Sure,
but
they
were
always
illegal.
The
firms
didn’t
make
these
deals
because
they
thought
they’d
lose
the
court
fight
over
the
executive
orders
—
at
least
not
unless
I’m
grossly
overestimating
their
judgment
as
lawyers
—
they
made
the
deals
to
avoid
the
hassle
of
fighting
the
case.
Trump
can,
at
almost
zero
cost,
bring
back
the
hassle.
Firms
with
some
backbone
actually
challenged
these
orders
and
won
and
Trump
is
still
appealing.
He
doesn’t
care
about
taking
repeated
losses
in
court
because
he’s
exacting
inconvenience
and
he
can
just
turn
those
losses
into
more
fuel
for
the
“all
the
activist
leftist
Reagan
judges
are
out
to
get
me”
agitprop.
The
idea
that
Trump
is
playing
3D
chess
against
Biglaw
to
prevent
a
black
eye
in
court,
gives
way
to
the
simpler
explanation:
the
firms
know
they’re
dealing
with
an
excitable
dementia
patient
and
expect
him
to
move
on
to
the
next
shiny
object.
Personally,
I
wouldn’t
bank
a
firm’s
liquidity
on
a
toddler’s
promise
to
eat
his
veggies,
but
here
we
are.
And,
look,
Trump
can’t
even
remember
the
people
he
appointed
to
the
Federal
Reserve,
so
there’s
a
decent
case
that
he
might
forget
about
his
law
firm
deals
too.
But
I
doubt
Stephen
Miller
will.
Though
even
if
the
White
House
never
comes
calling
—
though
they
will
—
the
deals
are
already
hurting
people.
The
implicit
flipside
of
firms
keeping
their
heads
down
to
avoid
doing
work
for
Trump
is
that
the
firm
has
to
avoid
doing
work
that
gets
back
on
Trump’s
radar.
And
it
goes
beyond
the
firms
themselves,
as
pro
bono
work
is
taking
a
hit
across
Biglaw
in
large
part
because
of
the
lead
these
firms
took
in
bending
the
knee.
No
one
wants
to
be
out
there
defending
folks
that
could
irk
Trump
or
Miller.
Maybe
they
can
help
him
with
the
Epstein
list.
Trump’s
not
going
to
get
far
litigating
against
Rupert
Murdoch
without
some
big
guns
and
it’s
not
like
he’s
actually
going
to
pay
a
firm
to
handle
it.
Despite
Affirming
Their
Independence,
Law
Firm
Leaders
Remain
Quiet
on
How
They’re
Satisfying
Trump
Pro
Bono
Commitments
[American
Lawyer]
Earlier:
Biglaw
Firms
Surrendering
To
Trump
Furiously
Backpedaling:
‘LOL,
What
Pro
Bono
Deals?’