Attorney General William Tong has signed a letter urging fellow lawyers to support national law firms that have been targeted by President Donald Trump.
Tong signed the letter, along with 19 other attorneys general, advocating for law firms that have rebuked the Trump administration.
The administration has primarily targeted four law firms – Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey – in an effort to punish them for taking positions that are unpalatable to the administration.
Through executive orders, the administration has sought to restrict the firms’ access to federal buildings, terminate their government contracts and suspend their attorneys’ security clearances.
The letter states that the executive orders are unconstitutional because they “retaliate against lawyers based on protected speech and association, and they discriminate based on viewpoint.”
Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey have sued the Trump administration and obtained court orders temporarily blocking the executive orders.
The letter urges other law firms to file amicus briefs in their support.
Yale Law School’s Rule of Law Clinic, representing 27 former national security, foreign policy and intelligence officials, is among hundreds of groups that have filed amicus briefs in support of the targeted firms.
The letter also expresses “profound disappointment that several of the country’s largest law firms have capitulated in the face of these dangerous attacks on the rule of law.”
Major law firms, including Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, have struck deals with the Trump administration to avoid punitive measures, including providing free legal services aligned with the administration’s priorities.
By mid-April 2025, nine firms had pledged nearly $1 billion in free legal services to the Trump administration, according to the New York Times.
The letter urges other firms to resist pressure to cave to the administration’s demands.
“Donald Trump’s attempts to bully the legal profession into silence and submission leave no choice but to fight back,” Tong said. “He relentlessly targets attorneys to exact political revenge on those who defended the integrity of our elections. He arrests and perp-walks a sitting judge on the thinnest of charges. He mocks and defies court orders. These are foundational attacks on not just our legal profession — but on the rule of law itself.”
In addition to Tong, the letter was signed by the attorneys general of New Jersey, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and the District of Columbia.
Click here to read the letter.
