To the surprise of perhaps nobody with a pulse, yet another Big Law firm has preemptively surrendered in advance to the Pork Reich's fascist agenda to avoid Trump's revenge for *checks notes* taking completely legitimate cases against him and his fascist allies - including "representing two Georgia election workers who sued his (Trump's) former attorney and adviser, Rudy Giuliani, for defamation."

commondreams.org/news/trump-do…

'Absolutely Shameful': Critics Slam Latest Law Firm to Cave Amid Trump's Revenge Threats

"Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP proactively reached out to President Trump and his Administration, offering their decisive commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession," Trump said on his Truth Social network. "The President is delivering on his promises of eradicating Partisan Lawfare in America, and restoring Liberty and Justice FOR ALL."

According to Trump, Willkie—whose partners include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff—will provide a total of at least $100 million in pro bono services to veterans, active duty U.S. troops, and Gold Star families; law enforcement and first responders; to "ensuring fairness in our justice system;" and combating antisemitism.

The firm also agreed to commit to "merit-based hiring" and refrain from "illegal" diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring, promotion, and retention. It must also "not deny representation to clients, such as members of politically disenfranchised groups... who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms... because of the personal political views of individual lawyers."

Setting aside the fact that forcing the law firm run in part by Kamala Harris's husband to grovel and capitulate without a fight is a huge propaganda win for Der Führer, Trump's increasing control of Big Law is a much bigger story than folks outside of the legal world may realize. I think most people grasp that like virtually all of the stories about white shoe DC law firms agreeing to work for Trump, even if they don't realize that's what they've done yet, the story of Wilkie's preemptive surrender is primarily about cowardice, greed, and collaboration.

What I'm not sure a lot of people who aren't familiar with how civil rights law actually functions in America understand however, is that every time Trump forcibly recruits one of these DC firms, he's also knocking out a valuable plank of resistance to his authoritarian violations because there are literally only so many lawyers available to take civil rights cases, and those cases are typically done pro bono. While it would be nice to imagine a legal system not entirely dependent on lawsuits and rich lawyers engaging in a little reputation washing to protect the civil rights of folks persecuted by a fascist government, that is in fact the situation in the really real world we're living in. At the rate he's going so far, Trump is not only going to force all the best law firms in DC to work for the regime, but he's also going to drastically reduce the number of cases that can be brought against his government for even clear civil rights violations, simply because there won't be any lawyers left able to take those cases at rates targeted people can afford.

#Fascism #Trump #BigLaw #WilkieFarrLaw #Collaboration #VichyEstablishment #Courts #Law #DougEmhoff #RudyGuilliani #ElectionDenial

I've been waiting for just over a week for the folks at TMR to clip this interview with former Skadden lawyer Rachel Cohen so I could share it here. Not only is Cohen's inside baseball perspective on the cowardice of Big Law firms groveling before Trump an interesting watch, but she's also one of the few people with knowledge of the situation willing to state what *I* feel is pretty obvious - that the Trump regime's war on Big Law is about trying to restrict the number of lawyers and firms that will bring totally legitimate cases against their fascist policies and activities, through a sheer question of numbers and resources.

The clip is only about 15 minutes long, but I guarantee you that Cohen here is spitting more truth than you'll find in all the articles about Big Law's capitalist cowardice and craven surrender in media sources like the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal. It's worth the watch:

The Majority Report: Trump's Revenge

"Sam and Emma are joined by Rachel Cohen, lawyer formerly of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, to discuss the country’s largest law firms bending the knee to Donald Trump."

youtube.com/watch?v=y0bVdiTDzQ…

#VichyEstablishment #BigLaw #Law #Courts #Skadden #RachelCohen #TMR #SamSeder #EmmaVigeland #Fascism #Trump #Collaboration

And another white shoe DC law firm decides to capitulate to fascism rather than fight; even as their colleagues at other firms are successfully getting restraining orders to block Trump's strongarm tactics. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (typically shortened to just "Skadden") joins the firm Paul Weiss on the wall of infamy and cowardice, with a "deal" that's even more collaborationist with, again - fascists and a fascist agenda.

commondreams.org/news/skadden-…

'Pathetic': Elite Law Firm Blasted for Striking Deal With Trump Administration

"The firm has agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services to the federal government during his administration "and beyond," according to a Truth Social post from U.S. President Donald Trump. Also, the "firm will not engage in illegal" diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) "discrimination and preferences," according to the post, which also noted that the firm proactively reached out to the administration about an agreement.

Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump called the deal "essentially a settlement," according to Reuters.

"Pathetic when the richest and most powerful lawyers in America won't stand up for the profession that made them rich and powerful," wrote U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on X on Friday, reacting to earlier reporting that the firm was in discussions with the White House over a deal."

In addition to the $100M of pro bono work for the Trump regime, other outlets are reporting that Skadden has promised to offer fellowships to "conservative" (so, fascist, because conservative means fascist in this political environment) law graduates, and take cases for conservative causes - which I think we can safely parse to mean things like "reverse racism" lawsuits, and anti-gender discrimination cases that involve "protecting women" by persecuting trans women. Did I mention that Skadden took these steps preemptively, as in before Trump even issued an executive order targeting them?

As in the case of Paul Weiss, and various wealthy Universities in America, the simple truth is that these folks are choosing to actively collaborate with fascists, and reinforcing the twisted unreality imposed by a fascist regime, for nothing more than money. We have a term for people who help fascists, do fascism, for money - it's fascist collaborator, or simply just "fascist." Like all the others, Skadden thinks they're striking a deal to stop Der Führer's assault on their very lucrative enterprise; and like the others, they'll soon discover that they work for Trump now, and there's no amount of appeasement that will change that.

#Fascism #Trump #BigLaw #Skadden #Collaboration #VichyEstablishment #Courts #Law