Jenner & Block, WilmerHale sue over Trump orders targeting law firms

Jenner & Block and WilmerHale sued the Trump administration Friday over the president’s executive orders targeting the law firms.

Trump has signed a series of executive orders that take aim at Big Law firms with ties to his critics and people he perceives as his enemies.

On Tuesday, Trump signed the order targeting Jenner & Block, which previously employed Andrew Weissmann, a prominent anti-Trump legal pundit who worked on then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“The Constitution, top to bottom, protects against such attempts by the government to target citizens and lawyers based on the opinions they voice, the people with whom they associate, and the clients they represent,” the lawsuit states.

The president signed a similar order Thursday targeting WilmerHale, which employed Mueller himself before and after his stint as special counsel.

Both orders seek to limit the firms’ government contracts and their attorneys’ security clearances and access to government buildings.

“In sum, the Order will inevitably cause extensive, lasting damage to WilmerHale’s current and future business prospects. It will severely hinder the Firm’s ability to effectively serve its clients—the lifeblood of any law firm. And, by design, it discourages clients from retaining or maintaining WilmerHale as their counsel,” WilmerHale wrote in its lawsuit.

It is one of five such orders Trump has signed; he has also signed similar ones targeting the law firms of Covington, Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss.

Before Friday, only Perkins Coie had sued the administration, and a federal judge has temporarily blocked portions of the corresponding order as the litigation continues. Paul Weiss, meanwhile, cut a deal with Trump that included a $40 million spending commitment on pro bono causes aligned with the administration.

Both of the firms newly suing have brought in outside counsel. Jenner & Block is represented by Cooley, while WilmerHale is represented by prominent conservative lawyers at Clement & Murphy.

The firms said their new challenges are related to Perkins Coie’s existing case and should be assigned to U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an appointee of former President Obama who oversees that litigation. But Howell later rejected that notion and said the court’s random assignment process should be utilized instead.

“Although both law firms are being targeted in similar ways in these separate Executive Orders, the facts of each case differ: the punitive measures imposed on Perkins Coie arise solely from the firm’s representation of clients disliked by the President, while the punitive measures imposed on Jenner & Block in this new case arise, in part, from the firm’s representation of clients disliked by the President but also, in part, from professional work performed at the United States Department of Justice by a former Jenner & Block partner who was not affiliated with the law firm at the time of the work to which the President objects,” Howell wrote.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Updated at 12:46 p.m. EDT