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.
Beginning in early 2025, Trump signed a series of executive orders against firms including Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Paul Weiss, and Susman Godfrey. These orders were sweeping in scope and punitive in tone. They accused the firms of engaging in “partisan lawfare,” supporting “attacks against women and children,” and “degrading the quality of American elections”—claims made with little or no substantiating evidence.
The orders went further than rhetoric. They directed federal agencies to:
One firm was accused of undermining American interests because it had previously employed Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor on...
American Psychiatric Centers, doing business as Comprehensive Psychiatric Services, agreed to pay $2.75 million to resolve allegations it submitted false claims for psychotherapy services to govern...