Law firms hire former Tesla lawyer and top conservative litigator for Trump fight

Source: Reuters

April 1, 2025 6:17 AM EDT Updated 11 hours ago


April 1 (Reuters) - As the Trump administration strikes at U.S. law firms with a wave of executive orders, three firms challenging those orders have retained a former Tesla general counsel, a longtime conservative litigator and other top lawyers to represent them. Veteran conservative and U.S. Supreme Court attorney Paul Clement is representing law firm WilmerHale, and Silicon Valley-founded firm Cooley is representing Jenner & Block in their lawsuits against the administration of President Donald Trump, court papers show.

Fourteen partners at law firm Williams & Connolly signed a lawsuit filed by Perkins Coie on March 11, the first such case against the Trump White House in its crackdown targeting large firms and their client work. The Williams & Connolly team includes Dane Butswinkas, who was briefly the top lawyer at Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker Tesla.

There is a growing rift in the legal profession over whether and how to fight back against the administration in its pursuit of firms for their work for Trump's Democratic adversaries and their internal diversity policies. Many large law firms with significant corporate client bases have not made public statements, but thousands of individual lawyers, the American Bar Association and other legal groups have been openly critical.

Two prominent Wall Street law firms — Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps — cut deals with the White House to avoid similar directives against them. The White House rescinded its order against Paul Weiss, and Skadden reached a deal before one was issued. Clement in a statement on Friday said WilmerHale's lawsuit was "absolutely critical to vindicating the First Amendment, our adversarial system of justice, and the rule of law."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/law-firms-hire-former-tesla-lawyer-top-conservative-litigator-trump-fight-2025-04-01/