Resolution on Capitulating Law Firms

Adopted May 20th, 2025 by a membership vote 605-155

WHEREAS, the Donald Trump administration has launched a pressure campaign targeting large law firms, threatening illegal penalties such as barring their lawyers from government buildings and revoking their security clearances, in an attempt to extract concessions from these firms or punish them for their legitimate representation of clients or associations with lawyers Trump dislikes;

WHEREAS, some of these targeted firms have fought back in court and successfully blocked Trump’s punitive executive orders, which one federal judge described as “a shocking abuse of power”;

WHEREAS, other firms have declined to stand up for themselves, their employees, and the legal profession, instead folding quickly and reaching poorly defined agreements with Trump that commit them to altering internal firm policies and providing close to $1 billion in legal services towards causes Trump supports. At this time, the capitulating firms include A&O Shearman; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Latham & Watkins LLP; Milbank LLP; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; and Willkie Farr &

Gallagher LLP;

WHEREAS, Trump and his allies have signaled that the capitulating firms are now at their beck and call and that they intend to use the capitulating firms’ resources to fend off criminal investigations, assist Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in illegally dismantling the federal government, and/or defend police officers accused of misconduct, among other

purposes, and the capitulating firms have not dared to contradict them;

WHEREAS, the executive order and Trump’s statements imply the Trump administration’s oversight of the capitulating firms’ pro bono services, potentially creating conflicts of interest and raising substantial questions about the protection of personal and confidential client data;

WHEREAS, the capitulation of these firms calls into question their ethical and legal obligations and may compromise the trust and confidentiality integral to the practice of law, especially in cases where clients may face potential retaliation, scrutiny, or harm due to the compliance by the capitulating law firms to future political pressure and improper or illegal requests for information about those they represent;

WHEREAS, the American legal profession is self-regulating, and lawyers and legal institutions are expected to abide by the norms, principles, and ethical rules shaped by the profession itself, which includes individual attorneys, paraprofessionals, private firms, public servants, bar associations, law schools, academics, law students, legal nonprofits, and labor unions

representing legal workers;

WHEREAS, it is now up to the legal profession to determine whether the capitulating firms’ decision to hand over control of their internal policies and labor to win favor with an autocratic ruler falls outside the bounds of professional legitimacy;

WHEREAS, many lawyers at capitulating firms have resigned in protest of their firms’ cowardice, spoken out publicly to condemn them, and called on other firms to avoid making the same mistake;

WHEREAS, students at more than 30 American law schools have signed a pledge refusing to work for capitulating firms;

WHEREAS, law professors, scholars, and commentators have widely condemned the agreements reached with the capitulating firms as unlawful, unprecedented, unethical, and “undermining ... the foundations of our system of constitutional democracy”;

WHEREAS, more than 500 law firms signed an amicus brief condemning the Trump administration’s unlawful executive orders seeking to “cow” firms “into submission”;

WHEREAS, the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (ALAA), UAW Local 2325, includes over 3000 workers in the legal services sector, primarily but not solely in the New York City metropolitan area, and many of our offices work with private law firms to a greater or lesser extent;

WHEREAS, many of our offices work with private law firms on pro bono cases, which provide benefits to the firms in the forms of experience for associates, incentives to help with recruiting and retention, and public recognition;

WHEREAS, our members work in the public interest and many of our offices represent clients who are immigrants, LGBTQ+, low-income, disabled, or otherwise marginalized, creating a potential conflict of interest with capitulating firms who have pledged to devote hundreds of millions of dollars worth of legal work to causes approved or selected by an administration that has cruelly targeted all of these groups;

WHEREAS, ALAA stands firmly committed to ensuring that our clients—many of whom already face heightened risks due to their personal or political circumstances—are not further endangered by the potential misuse of their sensitive legal information or by other improper or illegal collusive actions between the capitulating firms and the Trump administration;

WHEREAS, as part of the legal profession, it is ALAA’s responsibility to define and uphold the values, principles, and norms we want the profession to maintain;

WHEREAS, many of our offices are nonprofits whose boards include law firm partners, and the ALAA chapter at Mobilization for Justice (MFJ) has already called for partners at Paul Weiss, Skadden, and Willkie, and any other firm that capitulates to the Trump administration, to resign or be removed from the board of MFJ;

THEREFORE, be it resolved that:

1. ALAA condemns the leadership of capitulating firms for bowing to the Trump administration’s illegal intimidation efforts and believes this cowardly decision is an unacceptable violation of the norms and principles of the legal profession;

2. ALAA expresses our solidarity with workers who have quit capitulating firms in protest and law students who have pledged not to work at capitulating firms;

3. ALAA calls upon our employers and all legal nonprofits and public interest organizations to cease working with capitulating firms, including ceasing the assignment of pro bono cases to such firms going forward; and

4. ALAA calls for the resignation or removal of partners at capitulating firms who sit on the boards of our employers.