Donald Trump, president, is aiming his sights at a number of white-shoe law firms that have historically fought immigration enforcement, among other progressive legitimate reasons.
The popular Democrat-aligned law firms that Trump has hit with professional purchases are part of a well-funded global equipment working pro bono on behalf of left-wing activist organizations to keep illegal immigrants in the country.
Adherents of Trump’s stress campaign against Big Law claim that a cot of an economy that has become increasingly liberal is long overdue. Some in the legal society see it as a course adjustment following years of one-sided lawfare waged in pursuit of communist reasons.
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Immigration judge has been one for battleground. The BigLaw companies have fought both for personal illegal immigrants and against executive orders that have attempted to stop illegal border crossings.
Perkins Coie
Seattle-based Perkins Coie, one of the four holdouts challenging Trump in federal court, is a progressive heavy for a group of activist companions fighting against the imprisonment of illegal immigrants.
Perkins Coie deploys regiments of pro bono lawyers to serve as base men in this battle.
According to a annual pro bono statement, Perkins Coie “dispatched” a system of attorneys and paralegals to the Karnes County Detention Facility, an immigration processing center south of San Antonio, Texas, during Trump’s first name.
There, the team of Perkins Coie attorneys prepared” as many ]of the 400-plus detainees ] as possible” for credit fear interviews, a crucial part of the asylum-claiming process, in partnership with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, a Texas nonprofit group providing free legal representation to asylum-seekers who have unlawfully entered the United States.
The Refugee Aid Project, which was established as a result of the Sanctuary Movement, a network that assisted Central American nationals entering the country without authorization in the 1980s, is now known as RAICES. Right before the Refugee Aid Project’s founding, two Sanctuary Movement members were convicted in federal court of conspiracy for transporting Salvadorans who were living in the U. S. illegally.
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Perkins Coie is also a longtime pro bono partner of the , Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a legal services provider operating along the U. S. Mexico border in Arizona and an abolish U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement advocate.
The Florence Project, which is widely distributed, distributes guides on claiming strategic deportation, and arranges for a team of attorneys at Perkins Coie to represent migrants for free.
In 2020, the 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) organization presented Perkins Coie with its Special Partnership Award for devoting nearly 1, 440 hours to training staff and litigating immigration-related cases in the Arizona courts. In habeas petitions challenging the detention of 23 migrants served nine Perkins Coie attorneys as co-counsel with the Florence Project that year.
” I’m never more motivated to come to work than when I’m working on a project with the Florence Project”, a member of the Perkins Coie team said, according to a press release announcing the award.
The Florence Project described Perkins Coie as” they taught and mentored us, strategized, hoped, and grieved with us.” ” Partnering with this team gave us the strength, the confidence, the experience, and the inspiration to advocate for our clients in entirely new ways, in a forum new and unfamiliar”.
According to an annual report, the Florence Project had eight Perkins Coie attorneys working for the organization as of 2023.
Using fees awarded from an Arizona prison reform class action lawsuit, Perkins Coie previously funded a legal director post at the Florence Project to take” the most challenging legal cases” on appeal. The executive director of the Florence Project, Lauren Dasse, said at the time,” We intend to appeal to the 9th Circuit, something we are unable to do without Perkins Coie’s support.”
Aside from individual case consultation, Perkins Coie also challenges U. S. immigration policy through the legal system. Perkins Coie won a case in a particular pro bono effort to challenge the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program of the United States Department of Homeland Security, which delayed and denied citizenship or legal residency applications due to national security concerns.
Over the past 35 years, Perkins Coie has provided approximately 1.45 million hours of pro bono services, the law firm reported in court filings. Perkins Coie attorneys completed 89, 000 hours of pro bono work in total in 2024, making an estimated$ 70 million worth of work.
Jenner &, Block
Jenner &, Block, another high-profile law firm fending off Trump’s threats, is deeply entrenched in the immigration advocacy sector.
Headquartered in Chicago, the firm often takes on deportation defense cases referred by the National Immigrant Justice Center, or NIJC, a Soros-funded legal assistance recruitment hub touting a network of over 2, 000 pro bono attorneys.
Every month, the NIJC lists asylum-seekers in need of pro bono representation for referral. After accepting these recommendations, Jenner &, Block frequently collaborates with corporate legal aid agencies, such as McDonald’s pro bono program, at each stage of the asylum process, working together as “teammates” on drafting affidavits, interviewing witnesses, and other divided duties.
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An open borders advocate, the NIJC , calls for the defunding , of all federal immigration enforcement agencies and the , decriminalization of illegal immigration. The Legal Protection Fund, a citywide initiative created in response to the 2016 Trump election, proudly collaborates with the NIJC and promotes its services to immigrants living within the city’s boundaries. Through its parent organization, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights, the NIJC has received$ 400, 000 from the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a major grantmaking foundation funded by liberal financier George Soros, for defending migrants from deportation “regardless of background”.
Jenner &, Block associates hold prominent positions at the NIJC, including on the board of directors and leadership councils. Wade Thomson, co-chair of Jenner &, Block’s business litigation practice and member of the firm’s policy committee, is an NIJC board member.
Jenner &, Block is now muting testimonials to its pro bono work on the firm’s website and made its annual pro bono report publicly inaccessible without a password, Chicago Business reported.
On the U.S. policy front, Jenner &, Block is representing three immigration advocacy organizations, including RAICES and the Florence Project, in a challenge to Trump’s presidential proclamation on securing the nation’s border, which barred migrants from remaining in the U.S. while seeking asylum. The complaint claims that Trump’s executive order violated several statutory provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act pertaining to asylum and withholding of removal protections.
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On behalf of some of the same clients, Jenner &, Block had also sued the Biden administration over a rule limiting asylum access. In response, the Biden administration argued that asylum-seekers could use the CBP One app as a way of scheduling asylum appointments.
Trump, upon entering office, then directed DHS to discontinue CBP One, and Jenner &, Block jointly filed a motion to temporarily block the app’s shutdown. In February, a judge ruled that the court lacked authority to order the parole of non-citizens into the United States, determining that this power is at the “exclusive discretion” of the Homeland Security secretary.
Jenner &, Block is the leading law firm nationally for pro bono services, ranked No. 1 on The American Lawyer‘s Pro Bono Scorecard at least 12 times.
In 2021, Jenner &, Block made a five-year commitment to provide $250 million in free legal assistance reportedly in response to the George Floyd riots. Last summer, the firm surpassed its pledge’s milestone 18 months ahead of schedule.
Jenner &, Block’s pro bono numbers continue to climb. Last year, 97% of Jenner &, Block attorneys contributed over 50 pro bono hours, amounting to almost 91,000 hours of pro bono work, according to the firm’s website. To date, Jenner &, Block manages more than 20 pro bono client partnership projects.
WilmerHale
The Trump White House has accused Washington, D. C., law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr ( Wilmer Hale ) of “back]ing ] the obstruction” of federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, a radical far-left legal organization affiliated with Antifa, recognized WilmerHale earlier as having “protected and expanded immigration rights in the U.S. S”.
The National Immigration Project is a membership-based organization that” cultivates a cohort of community defenders” and provides legal training to help clients “navigating the complexities of immigration law.” Marketed as” Resourcing the Movement”, the National Immigration Project’s programming includes monthly , removal defense webinars , on” Overcoming Bars to Relief” , , legal explainers pontificating about” the harmful and racist impact” of preventing migrants with criminal records from becoming citizens, and , practice advisories , for attorneys to follow detailing, for example, how to defend criminal aliens against the , Laken Riley Act‘s mandatory detention provisions.
Additionally, WilmerHale works pro bono with Ayuda, a legal services provider and advocacy group in the DMV. Ayuda’s “pro bono pipeline” connects clients to legal counsel through free consultation clinics and oversees long-term representation in immigration matters, including obtaining visas and claiming asylum. No prior immigration law experience is necessary, so pro bono attorneys can benefit from Ayuda’s “expert immigration mentorship and simple-to-use intake materials.”
Wilmer Hale’s New York office has hosted several pro se asylum clinics in the city overrun by mass migration.
The New York Legal Assistance Group organized a self-help workshop in December to teach newly arrived immigrants how to prepare their asylum applications for submission. At an August asylum clinic held in partnership with the left-of-center Sanctuary for Families, seven teams of WilmerHale attorneys and interpreters helped SFF clients apply for asylum.
WilmerHale, as well as Jenner &, Block, partnered with New York Mayor Eric Adams in 2023 to assist with asylum claims at the city’s Asylum Application Help Center. Asylum-seekers were scheduled for one-on-one appointments at the help center, where over 600 trained application assistants and immigration lawyers provided individualized pro bono support to the applicants. After receiving help filling out their asylum forms, the migrants mailed more than 1,300 asylum applications in a matter of weeks.
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In a years-long class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision to separate spouses when one is at risk of deportation while they pursue a path to legal immigration based on marriage, WilmerHale successfully sued the Trump administration.
151 WilmerHale attorneys were named to the District of Columbia Courts ‘ 2024 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll. Over half of the WilmerHale honorees received an additional honor: a spot on the High Honor Roll, which honors D.C. Bar members who engaged in more than 100 hours of pro bono work during the same calendar year.
In 2024, the Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services of the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia Circuit honored WilmerHale at an event celebrating law firms at which at least 40 % of lawyers provided at least 50 hours of pro bono legal aid to low-income individuals or charitable organizations. In attendance were the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Susman Godfrey
Trump also criticized well-known Texas court case mediator Susman Godfrey.
” Susman Godfrey has at times taken on unpopular clients and controversial causes in pro bono representations”, the law firm acknowledged in its complaint filed against the Trump administration.
According to the website of the law firm, attorneys at Susman Godfrey are frequently tapped by trial and appellate courts to assist with pro bono cases involving precedent-setting litigation. Susman Godfrey also regularly partners with various organizations on significant pro bono litigation, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Civil Rights Corps, the Texas Fair Defense Project, and the Next Generation Action Network Legal Advocacy, among many others.
When the Texas state sued to stop the IRC from resettling any Syrian refugees there, Susman Godfrey represented the International Rescue Committee pro bono. Working with the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a team of Susman Godfrey attorneys defeated the state’s multiple requests for injunctive relief, and a federal court later dismissed all of the state’s claims in the Syrian resettlement case.
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Susman Godfrey has been featured before on National Law Journal‘s Pro Bono Hot List for going” all in on bail reform”. The law firm’s pro bono work on a landmark case, which successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Harris County, Texas cash bail system, was recognized.
For decades, the Harris County Jail detained tens of thousands of defendants who were arrested for misdemeanors but financially unable to post bail. Pro bono, Susman Godfrey represented a group of indigent arrestees in an effort to end the county’s bail practices.
Susman Godfrey’s managing partner Neal Manne described the litigation as “all-out war”. The case’s attorneys worked 1, 000 hours of pro bono for the case over the course of two years, and they spent the day preparing for an eight-day evidentiary hearing, which included 300 written exhibits, 2, 300 video recordings of bail hearings, and 13 witnesses. Susman is “pretty selective” about pro bono work, Manne said. He said,” We’re all in when we do something on.”
In the first year following Susman Godfrey’s legal victory, more than 12, 000 pre-trial defendants were released from the county jail.
