Trump Alters His 'Deal' with BigLaw and Wants to Extort Legal Services for Himself and His Allies

Apr 17, 2025

When BigLaw firms made deals with Donald Trump under the threat of presidential retribution, their excuse was that they were merely agreeing to do what they already did: donate free legal services to uncontroversial causes. But Trump is, predictably, demanding more.

The New York Times reports:

When some of the nation’s biggest law firms agreed to deals with President Trump, the terms appeared straightforward: In return for escaping the full force of his retribution campaign, the firms would do some free legal work on behalf of largely uncontroversial causes like helping veterans.
Mr. Trump, it turns out, has a far more expansive view of what those firms can be called on to do.
Over the last week, he has suggested that the firms will be drafted into helping him negotiate trade deals. …
And he has hinted that he sees the promises of nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services that he has extracted from the elite law firms—including Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Willkie Farr & Gallagher—as a legal war chest to be used as he wishes. …
White House officials believe that some of the pro bono legal work could even be used toward representing Mr. Trump or his allies if they became ensnared in investigations, according to the two people.

This is an attempt to consolidate Trump’s power by creating a vast slush fund of free legal services for his political causes, gained by extortion. But: “It is unclear whether the firms even signed formal written deals spelling out the terms, or if they were essentially handshake agreements.”

Some of our nation’s supposedly sharpest lawyers were so naïve that they made a deal with Donald Trump and assumed that someone who was already illegally abusing his power would keep his end. Instead, he is altering the deal. BigLaw should pray he does not alter it any further.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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