Date: June 16, 2025
Beginning in early 2025, the Trump administration issued a series of executive orders targeting law firms across the country — an attack that was seen as violating constitutional protections. Whistleblower Network News reported on the response from hundreds of law firms coming together to file amicus briefs in support of the main targets. The Employment Law Group is one of the firms that participated.
[EXCERPT]
Whistleblower Lawyers Stand Up to Defend Rule of Law
In an unprecedented campaign of executive retaliation, during the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration issued a string of executive orders targeting major law firms across the United States. The reason? Their clients, their causes, and in some cases, the mere association with lawyers critical of Trump’s presidency.
What followed was a constitutional reckoning in federal courtrooms — and a unified rebuke from the large swaths of the legal profession, including several whistleblower defense firms.
[…]
The orders went further than rhetoric. They directed federal agencies to:
- Suspend security clearances of law firm personnel,
- Terminate government contracts involving the targeted firms,
- Bar firm attorneys from entering federal buildings,
- Discourage hiring of former firm employees, and
- Trigger civil rights investigations over alleged race-based hiring practices.
One firm was accused of undermining American interests because it had previously employed Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
In response to the administration’s campaign, 884 law firms signed on to an amicus brief in Susman Godfrey LLP v. Executive Office of the President, calling for a permanent injunction. The brief, filed in April 2025, warned that the orders “pose a grave threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the rule of law itself.”
[…]
The Susman Godfrey filing was not an outlier. Similar amicus briefs were filed in support of Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block — two other targets of the executive crackdown. These briefs shared a consistent message: targeting law firms for their advocacy violates fundamental constitutional protections.
Notably, among the signatories of the briefs were numerous firms recognized for their work in whistleblower and False Claims Act litigation.
