Ranking Member Connolly and Rep. Min Investigate President Trump’s Unlawful Extortion of Private Law Firms
Washington, D.C. (April 28, 2025)—Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. David Min sent letters to Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Latham & Watkins LLP; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates requesting documents and information about each law firm’s “agreement” to provide millions of dollars in what the White House calls “pro bono legal concessions” to avoid being targeted by the Trump Administration. In their letters, the Members also highlight reports that the agreements may have been made through President Trump’s personal lawyer for a “legal war chest to be used as” President Trump wishes. These letters build on previous action by Rep. Min on this issue.
“The information you provide will inform our broader investigation into the Trump Administration’s practice of targeting individual companies, organizations, and people based on his personal or political grievance. We seek to understand, for example, where this ‘agreement’ and the activities surrounding it might fall under existing law; how those activities might be treated under the ethical and legal obligations of the federal officials and other individuals involved in reaching and implementing the agreement; and if the professional and legal duties governing the practice of law no longer protect the legal system against the Trump Administration’s attacks,” wrote the Members. “We also seek to understand the effect this agreement and any others like it could have on the U.S. legal industry, including the global competitiveness of U.S. law firms.”
The “agreement” between Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP and the White House commit each firm to provide $125 million in what the White House has described as “pro bono legal concessions,” marking the first time where such an agreement may have been obtained by collusion between law firms.
In their letter to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, the Members note that after the firm reached its $40 million “agreement” with President Trump in exchange for the revocation of an executive order targeting the firm, references to its work on behalf of people who are fleeing persecution by other authoritarian regimes, as well as a statement denouncing antisemitism, were removed from its website despite the firm’s prior work to change “American policy toward immigration” during the Holocaust.
After entering its $100 million “agreement” with President Trump, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliate’s website also removed mentions of certain pro bono work. “To our knowledge, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom was the first firm to preemptively submit to the President without an executive order being issued,” the Members wrote. “Our investigation extends to those firms that followed your lead, as well as to the White House itself.”
“America’s promise of equal justice under law will perish if the legal profession allows itself to be coerced into denying representation to the people who need it most,” concluded the Members.
Click here to read the letters to Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; Latham & Watkins LLP; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates.
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