While four firms fought Trump's executive orders targeting law firms in court and won (see Trump Targeted Law Firms With Executive Orders for Representing His Opponents; All Four Were Struck Down as Unconstitutional), nine others made deals. Between late March and April 11, 2025, they pledged a combined $940 million in free legal work to causes the White House and the firms both said they support.
Paul Weiss went first. After Trump signed an order against it, he revoked it on March 21, 2025, saying the firm “has acknowledged the wrongdoing of its former partner Mark Pomerantz” and committing it to “the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services during my term in office.” Skadden followed on March 28 with $100 million without having been targeted; the White House said the firm “approached President Trump and his Administration.” Willkie Farr and Milbank each pledged $100 million in early April. On April 11, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher and A&O Shearman each committed at least $125 million, and Cadwalader $100 million. The work was to go to veterans, fighting antisemitism and “fairness in our Justice System,” and the firms agreed not to “engage in illegal DEI discrimination and preferences” and to commit to “Merit-Based Hiring,” according to Trump's posts.
Trump described the deals in his own words. “Law firms are just saying: 'Where do I sign? Where do I sign?'” he said on March 26. On April 8: “They give you $100 million and then they announce that uh, 'But we have done nothing wrong.' And I agree, they've done nothing wrong. But what the hell, they give me a lot of money considering they've done nothing wrong.” He said the government would use the firms on trade: “We're going to use them and we're getting them for the right price because we need a lot of talent,” and, on April 10, “we're going to and trying to use these, these very prestigious firms to help us out with the trade.”
That is where some of the work went. A Commerce Department spokesperson said in August 2025 that the department was working with “some of America's top law firms and legal minds to cement the truly historic trade deals that President Trump negotiated,” and reporting summarized by the ABA Journal said requests for help with conservative causes mostly went unanswered. Bloomberg Law reported that some deals were never signed and that none has an enforcement mechanism. Kirkland later confirmed to Democratic lawmakers that it is performing “legal work” without pay “for government agencies pursuant to the Agreement.” House and Senate Democrats asked whether the deals violated bribery, extortion or racketeering laws; the firms defended them, except Latham, which did not explicitly do so. In July 2026 the Justice Department sought to depose leaders of several of the firms over the role of Trump's lawyer Boris Epshteyn in brokering the deals, the New York Times reported, according to Bloomberg Law.