Legal organizations alarmed over Trump’s targeting of Seattle law firm Perkins Coie

Legal organizations in Washington state have joined the outcry over President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the Pacific Northwest’s largest law firm, Seattle-based Perkins Coie. The firm is headquartered at 1201 Third Avenue in Seattle and has more than 2,400 employees at 21 offices across the U.S. and overseas.

Trump’s order titled “Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLC” seeks to punish the firm, in part in part over its representation of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and its involvement in commissioning the anti-Trump dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele in 2016, which Trump said was “designed to steal an election.” This week, the firm sued to challenge the order in federal court in Washington, D.C.

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Judge Beryl Howell found that Trump’s order could create a “chilling harm of blizzard proportions” around legal representation in general and blocked Trump’s order temporarily.

Meanwhile, the Washington State Bar Association's board this week issued a statement expressing “grave concerns” about Trump’s order, calling it a “dangerous strike against an impartial and independent justice system.” Nearly all the organization’s board members from around the state approved the letter.

The Seattle chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive bar association, echoed the alarm, saying, “If Trump is successful in attacking a well-respected, major, and essentially centrist law firm, Trump will only be emboldened to continue his attacks on the legal system in general, including judges, other lawyers, and state and federal government officials who stand up to his bullying.”

Additionally, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown signed on to a brief with other state attorneys general that said, “This Court cannot allow the President’s campaign of personal and political retribution to cut off effective advocacy.”

Chris Geidner is a Washington D.C.-based journalist who writes and publishes the legal newsletter Law Dork, and covered the federal court hearing on Wednesday.

He noted that the order against Perkins Coie goes much farther than Trump’s previous order targeting a different law firm, because it seeks to pressure the firm’s clients. It requires government contractors, which include many prominent Seattle-based companies, to disclose any business they do with Perkins Coie to federal agencies. Perkins Coie told the court such pressures pose an “existential” risk to the law firm.

Geidner said the Trump administration’s position was represented by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s chief of staff Chad Mizelle, who said the president has authority to take action against Perkins Coie because the order involves matters of national security. But Judge Howell found that Trump’s order amounted to a personal vendetta that is not a governmental interest.

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Perkins Coie sought a restraining order against three provisions and Howell granted that order. She found Trump’s order is likely unconstitutional under the First Amendment's rights to free speech and association, the Fifth Amendment's due process rights, and the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel, Geidner said.

He added that Howell included language to ensure the Trump administration complies with this restraining order and does not pressure Perkins Coie clients.

The administration is “specifically ordered to communicate to every recipient of a request for that disclosure that they don’t have to do so for now,” Geidner said. In addition, the Justice Department has to provide a status report to Howell describing how it's ensured compliance.

“In essence, she’s saying, 'I want to see your work,'” he said.

The attorneys involved in the cases outlined in Trump's order have since left Perkins Coie, and Howell affirmed that in any case, questions about individual lawyers’ actions are handled in the courts.

“This was about the political positions taken, this was about the clients represented, this was about the clearly constitutionally protected actions of this law firm,” Geidner said Howell found.

The case is expected to move forward quickly since both parties have agreed to skip over preliminary injunction stage and go straight to the merits of the case, according to Geidner.

It’s “clearly an effort by the judge to get this case fully resolved as quickly as possible so that whichever party she rules against — and it sounds like it’s going to be the Trump administration — is able to move the case on to appeal if they wish to do so,” he added.

In a special response to Trump's executive order called Perkins Coie Facts, managing partner Bill Malley posted a statement saying, “We are grateful for the outpouring of support and offers of assistance following the issuance of last Thursday’s Executive Order. I have never been prouder to stand with my firm and others in the legal community in support of our people, our clients, and our profession.”