Former top government lawyers are jumping into the Big Law fight against Trump

Politico

15-04-2025

Solicitors general from past administrations are emerging as some of the most prominent opponents of
President Donald Trump's actions targeting the legal profession
.
In recent weeks, at least three of the nation's top advocates across Republican and Democratic administrations have spoken out against or challenged in court Trump's executive orders that seek to punish law firms.
'I think this is a moment to stand up,' former President Joe Biden's solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar told students during an appearance at Harvard Law School last week. 'It has been key in our society and in our democracy to hold the executive to account. And there is a legal system that is designed to deal with an issue like this one.'
Two prior solicitors general — Donald Verrilli and Paul Clement — have been instrumental in challenging Trump's orders in court. Verrilli, appointed by former President Barack Obama, represents the firm Susman Godfrey and Clement, appointed by former President George W. Bush, represents the firm WilmerHale. Both firms are fighting Trump's orders that cut them off from government contracts, strip their lawyers of security clearances and bar firm employees from interacting with government officials or entering government buildings.
As Trump targets major law firms for employing attorneys who have investigated him or for taking on cases he views as opposed to his personal and political interests, nine firms,
including some of the most profitable in the world
, have opted to strike deals with the president
instead of challenging him
in court. But for firms who have chosen to fight the president's actions, there may be no greater advocates than those who previously spoke for the federal government at the highest level.
'You would think the first in line to defend the rule of law would be solicitors general,' said a former solicitor general granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'Every single former living solicitor general should be out in front of this.'
The solicitor general is the Justice Department's top lawyer and is responsible for representing the executive branch before the Supreme Court. The position is sometimes known as the 'tenth justice' for how frequently they appear before the court and their influential role in shaping its docket.
Verrilli has been especially active on the Trump matter, filing amicus briefs on behalf of hundreds of law firms who sought to take a public stand against his orders, calling the president's moves an 'unprecedented threat' to the rule of law.
The president's orders are 'one of the most brazenly unconstitutional exercises of executive power in the history of this nation' and a 'direct assault on Article III courts and the independence of the judiciary,' Verrilli said during a Tuesday hearing where a judge granted his motion to temporarily block most of the sanctions against Susman Godfrey. (Susman Godfrey lawyers subject to the executive order wouldn't even be able to go to the post office to mail a letter, Verrilli said.)
Clement, the first solicitor general to publicly take on the administration, filed a lawsuit on behalf of WilmerHale at the end of March. It came less than 24 hours after the president targeted the firm with an executive order due to its employment of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and two of his deputies from the 2017 investigation into alleged Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.
The order is 'as palpable a threat to the separation of powers as I've seen,' Clement said during a March hearing in that case. In the audience during that hearing: Seth Waxman, another former solicitor general under former President Bill Clinton and co-chair of WilmerHale's appellate practice who is representing a group of agency inspectors general fired by Trump.
Clement has a history of standing up for the rule of law. In 2011, he quit his job at major law firm King & Spalding after the firm decided it would no longer represent the House of Representatives in a case concerning the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act.
'I resign out of the firmly-held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client's legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters,' Clement
wrote at the time
. 'Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do. The adversary system of justice depends on it, especially in cases where the passions run high. Efforts to delegitimize any representation for one side of a legal controversy are a profound threat to the rule of law.'