A top DC lawyer quit her job in protest of her firm’s decision to provide $100 million worth of pro-bono work to President Donald Trump’s administration.
Brenna Trout Frey, a former attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, took to LinkedIn on Saturday to voice her concerns and announce her resignation.
Just 24 hours earlier, Trump announced that the multinational law firm agreed to a deal that would see it provide legal services to veterans, public servants, “members of the military, law enforcement, and on and on ,” according to The Hill.
“Today, the executive partner of my former firm sent us all an “update” that attempted to convince some of the best minds in the legal profession that he did us a solid by capitulating to the Trump administration’s demands for fealty and protection money,” Frey wrote.
Frey went on to justify her resignation for reasons of not wanting to work for a firm that actively engages in “illegal DEI discrimination” and ignores “politically disenfranchised groups”, as she claimed in her post.
She then urged others to do “some soul-searching over the weekend and join me in sending a message that this is unacceptable (in whatever way you can).”
Skadden’s controversial move to provide legal services followed Trump’s executive order on March 22, which lambasted top U.S. firms that previously filed lawsuits or fought against his administration.
One firm to suffer from the order was Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (WilmerHale), the home of former FBI director Robert Mueller III, who served as the special counsel investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Trump, as reported by The New York Times.
Mueller worked at WilmerHale before retiring in 2021.
Trump announced Friday that Skadden agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services to his administration (REUTERS)
“There is only one acceptable response from attorneys to the Trump administration’s demands: The rule of law matters. The rule of law matters.
“As an attorney, if my employer cannot stand up for the rule of law, then I cannot ethically continue to work for them,” Frey added.
A week before Frey’s decision, her former colleague Rachel Cohen resigned on LinkedIn in a similar fashion.
“If being on this career path demands I accept that my industry—because this is certainly not unique to Skadden—will allow an authoritarian government to ignore the courts, I refuse to take it any further,” Cohen wrote.
In the executive order, the White House said it would enforce sanctions “against attorneys and law firms who engage in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States or in matters before executive departments and agencies of the United States.”
It warned that firms seeking to violate the terms of the order would face punitive executive actions, including a “reassessment of security clearances.”
Democratic Party lawyer and founder and chair of Elias Law Group LLP Marc Elias was also named for being “deeply involved in the creation of a false dossier” by a foreign national designed to provide a fraudulent basis for federal law enforcement to investigate a Presidential candidate in order to alter the outcome of the Presidential election. “
The memo claimed that Elias “intentionally sought to conceal the role of his client — failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — in the dossier.”
Former FBI director, Robert Mueller III served on the special counsel that investigated Russias’ alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election (Getty Images)
Following the announcement, Elias fired back at the White House, drafting a statement that read, “Today’s White House Memo targets not only me and my law firm, but every attorney and law firm who dares to challenge his assault on the rule of law.
“President Trump’s goal is clear. He wants lawyers and law firms to capitulate and cower until there is no one left to oppose his Administration in court,” his statement continued.
Since the memo, the Trump administration has attacked several firms, including Jenner & Block LLP (Jenner) and WilmerHale, in two separate memos for abandoning “the profession’s highest ideals and [abusing] its pro bono practice to engage in activities that undermine justice and the interests of the United States.”
The Independent approached Skadden for comment.
