I’m a bit floored that they didn’t all collectively get on a big conference call and say “you know what? Fuck this. This is our entire industry that he’s fucking with. Let’s go to work, chaps”. Like, holy shit, the precedent and its implications couldn’t be clearer, and they were too limpdick to do anything.
They're lawyers. They'd have the call and immediately start screwing each other over. No group is simultaneously so machiavellian and so bad at it (Statesian Republicans maybe, seeing how easily they were coopted by Krasnov)
trump is a bully. Bullies can’t be trusted to stop bullying by giving them what they want. Once they know they can get something from you by bullying, all they’ll do is keep bullying.
I can't see how anybody could retain these firms any more without putting themselves in legal jeopardy/turmoil.
Think about it. Lets say you've been working with one of these firms on an environmental issue for years. Suddenly, Trump declares that that issue is against his official policies and that they must now act on behalf of the Trump administration instead, or risk another EO revoking their security clearances. Which means now they have to drop you as a client due to the conflict of interest, because they couldn't drop Trump even if they wanted to.
And I don't give half a shit about the laws surrounding attorney/client privilege, because neither does Trump. Would you be 100% confident in a law firm that has at that point repeatedly bent the knee to Trump out of fear of retaliation not just turning over all your privileged files (either willingly, by coercion, or force) so Trump can use them against you? Or that Trump wouldn't just seize them via some NSA letter or something?
Even if one of these firms were willing to file a suit against the US government, would you feel 100% confident that your lawyers are giving you the zealous representation that they're required to give you against an enemy that literally has a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads?
Every law firm that bends the knee deserves to go out of business.
More than just going out of business, the bar should sanction them, including revoking law licenses. They have succumbed to extortion from a an organized crime organization, agreeing to compromise their legal obligations in order to appease a treasonous criminal. If they had done the same thing for someone like John Gotti or Whitey Bulger, there would be no question of punishment, and HitlerPig is worse than them, by a long ways.
Go fash, lose cash. Knowing his administration was acting illegally to target your firm and choosing to back down and offer him free legal services is such a cowardly, short-sighted decision. Bullies only back down when you stand up to them.
He targetted law firms that have previously taken part in legal challenges against his administration or he himself with the Attorney General investigating them with no cause. Essentially threatening them with, pun completely intended, Trumped Up Charges and legal troubles so as to cripple or destroy their firms. They have made a bunch of concessions to Trump to avoid this. Everything from ending inclusion policies to offering millions in free legal services to his administration and affiliates. Now they are losing clients because of these concessions. Damned if they did, damned if they didn't. Trump is happy for them to die either way.
TL;DR: The Orange hypocrite is using the government as a weapon against the people he thinks have wronged him and is getting away with it.