A prominent Chicago law firm targeted by President Donald Trump has sued his administration to block an executive order they claim is causing “escalating and irreparable harm” to their business — and threatening First Amendment rights nationwide.
The federal lawsuit filed by Jenner & Block on Friday in Washington D.C. seeks a temporary restraining order against the Trump measure that aims to probe the firm’s security clearances and government contracts.
Far from addressing any national security threat as claimed by the White House, lawyers for the Chicago-based firm argue the order is intended to scare off potential clients as part of a broader effort to silence critics of the president nationwide.
“The Order threatens not only Jenner, but also its clients and the legal system itself,” lawyers for Jenner & Block wrote in a brief accompanying their 64-page suit. “Our Constitution, top to bottom, forbids attempts by the government to punish citizens and lawyers based on the clients they represent, the positions they advocate, the opinions they voice, and the people with whom they associate.”
Jenner & Block is on a growing nationwide list of law firms with ties to Trump’s past legal troubles — that now find themselves in the president’s crosshairs early in his second term.
The firm previously employed Andrew Weissmann, a member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that investigated Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Though Weissmann hasn’t worked for Jenner since 2021, the executive order signed by Trump Tuesday labeled their association “a concerning indictment of Jenner’s values and priorities.”
The White House also attacked the firm’s pro bono work, claiming Jenner “engages in obvious partisan representations to achieve political ends, supports attacks against women and children based on a refusal to accept the biological reality of sex, and backs the obstruction of efforts to prevent illegal aliens from committing horrific crimes and trafficking deadly drugs within our borders.”
Jenner argues the White House’s true aim “is to cause clients to question their relationships with their chosen counsel at the Firm,” and to “single out and punish Jenner & Block for its protected speech, reflected in its advocacy for clients challenging policies of the current Administration.”
A White House spokesman said “Democrats and their law firms weaponized the legal process to try to punish and jail their political opponents. The president’s executive orders are lawful directives to ensure that the president’s agenda is implemented and that law firms comply with the law.”
But Jenner lawyers counter that “[t]hese orders send a clear message to the legal profession: Cease certain representations adverse to the government and renounce the Administration’s critics — or suffer the consequences.”
About 40% of the firm’s clients over the past five years do business with the government, Jenner lawyers wrote. In the wake of Trump’s order, “several clients have expressed concerns,” and they “will lose existing and prospective clients” if the courts don’t step in, according to the firm.
“The orders also attempt to pressure businesses and individuals to question or even abandon their associations with their chosen counsel, and to chill bringing legal challenges at all,” Jenner lawyers wrote.
Another powerhouse law firm similarly targeted by Trump — WilmerHale, which previously counted Mueller among its partners — also sued Friday against a similar Trump order leveled against them.
WilmerHale called it “a plainly unlawful attack on the bedrock principles of our nation’s legal system — our clients’ right to counsel and the First Amendment.”
Their suits were assigned to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who has temporarily blocked parts of a similar Trump order targeting Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie, which worked with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
While those firms fight back against the Trump administration, others have struck deals to stave off potentially damaging executive orders.
Trump rescinded an order last week against the firm Paul, Weiss — which previously employed an attorney involved with a Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s finances — after it agreed to review hiring practices and provide millions of dollars in free legal services supporting White House initiatives.
The chairman of that firm told colleagues he had to make the deal, or else the order “could easily have destroyed our firm.”
In a statement, Jenner & Block leaders said they were committed to going to court “against unlawful government action.”
“To do otherwise would mean compromising our ability to zealously advocate for all of our clients and capitulating to unconstitutional government coercion, which is simply not in our DNA,” firm leaders said.
Contributing: Associated Press