Date: 2025-10-05 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028289
THE US CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
LAW AND THE COURTS
President Trump announced a deal with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
LAW AND THE COURTS
President Trump announced a deal with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Original article: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5220137-trump-skadden-100-million-pro-bono/
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
There is something wrong about this. Both Trump and the law firm are compromised ... but in the Trump world this seems to becoming the norm!
The fact that Americans are willing put up with this behavior does not speak well of the USA.
And it raises all sorts of questions about the core ethics within the 'law' and the big name law firms' that have operated with big 'profits' for decades.
Trump is making a lot of obnoxious behavior visible ... but the sad reality is that a lot of this obnoxious behavior has been the 'norm' for a long tim, and especially in the 40+ years since Reagan beacme President!
Peter Burgess
The agreement comes as Trump has signed executive orders targeting Big Law firms tied to his critics and perceived political enemies, restricting the work they can do with the federal government.
“This was essentially a settlement,” Trump said, adding that “we very much appreciate their coming to the table.”
The president has not signed an order aimed at Skadden, though the administration has signaled that additional law firms could come under fire. The New York Times reported Thursday that Skadden appeared to be the first major firm seeking to cut a deal with Trump before he issued such an order.
Under the deal, Trump said Skadden won’t deny representation to clients from “politically disenfranchised groups, who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms.”
The firm’s assistance will include a focus on assisting veterans and other public servants, the president said, including “members of the military, law enforcement and on and on.”
Skadden will also commit to “merit-based hiring, promotion and retention” and fund at least five fellows as part of a scholarship fund, Trump said.
Skadden did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
It was announced last week that the major law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono work on causes backed by the administration and to hire an outside expert to audit its hiring and employment practices.
Trump then agreed to lift an executive order that would have taken away security clearances from the law firm’s staff.
After the Paul, Weiss deal, a Skadden associate made headlines for publicly sharing a “conditional notice” of resignation that urged the company to stand up to the president.
“If being on this career path demands I accept that my industry—because this is certainly not unique to Skadden—will allow an authoritarian government to ignore the courts, I refuse to take it any further,” former Skadden associate Rachel Cohen wrote in a viral LinkedIn post.
Hours before the news of the Skadden deal, two other firms — Jenner & Block and WilmerHale — separately sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive orders targeting them.
Parts of Trump’s executive order aimed at the law firm Perkins Coie were temporarily frozen by a federal judge earlier this month, after the firm claimed its past work for Democrats made it a subject of retaliation by the administration.
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