New non-profit law firm in DC aims to challenge Trump's executive power

CNN

5 days ago

A group of well-known Washington lawyers is opening a law firm focused on challenging President Donald Trump's executive orders and agency actions as he strives to dramatically reshape the federal government during his second term.
The Washington Litigation Group, a new boutique non-profit firm, is composed of seasoned attorneys, judges and former government employees who lost their jobs when the president took office – with some even emerging from retirement. Its services will be free to those looking to push back on Trump's use of executive power, and the group has already begun representing the head of an independent agency fired by the president.
The group is led by Tom Green, former head of Sidley Austin's white-collar practice and a veteran attorney who defended clients during the Watergate investigation and Iran-Contra affair.
Nathaniel Zelinsky, an attorney with experience practicing before federal appeals courts as well as the Supreme Court, joins the firm from Milbank and Hogan Lovells.
While there are other firms tackling similar cases to the Washington Litigation Group, Zelinsky told CNN in a phone call that their group stand out because of the number of people who have come out of retirement to work for the firm.
'I think that makes the firm different from other folks who are out there who are trying to do this work, in the sense that, we have this collection of extraordinary individuals who have come out of retirement to provide their mentorship and guidance and strategic vision,' Zelinsky said.
Zelinsky said that the firm is expected to be active in litigation regarding the unlawful removal of civil servants, agency dissolution and white-collar defense.
The new firm has also acquired two former federal prosecutors who were fired under the Trump administration, James Pearce and Mary Dohrmann. Pearce and Dohrmann served in multiple capacities at the Justice Department, including as assistant special counsels to Jack Smith, who was investigating Trump.
'I took pride in being a non-partisan civil servant committed to the rule of law and to doing justice,' Pearce said in a call with CNN.
Pearce said the range of experience among the attorneys is a strength, citing that the firm has attorneys familiar with early stages of investigations all the way up to lawyers who have practiced in front of the Supreme Court.
Dohrmann emphasized that many of the members of the firm want to continue 'upholding the rule of law' in a non-partisan way as they've done most of their careers.
'I think what we want to do here is continue the great tradition of non-partisan criminal investigations and prosecutions and upholding the rule of law as we've done to this point in our careers,' Dohrmann said in a call with CNN.
While the firm said it cannot discuss ongoing litigation, the group publicly represents Cathy Harris, whom Trump fired from her post as chair of the Merit System Protection Board earlier this year. MSPB is an independent agency that has the ability to review and reverse federal employee firings.
The Supreme Court ruled in May that Trump did not have to rehire Harris while her legal challenge to her firing plays out. A federal appeals court in DC is still considering whether her removal is lawful at all, as a trial-level judge has already decided.
Green, who came out of retirement himself, said in a press release Monday that the firm is 'deeply concerned about the state of the rule of law in our country.'
'Every passing day we see the increased need for committed and talented lawyers to join this cause, and we have done so by engaging some of the best lawyers from government and the private sector as we undertake to do our part,' Green said in the press release.
CNN's Paula Reid contributed to this report.