HHS Is Complying With Trump-Targeted Law Firms’ Court Wins

The US Department of Health and Human Services told employees Wednesday that it is complying with court orders blocking the president’s punitive executive orders against several prominent law firms.

In an email obtained by Bloomberg Law, the HHS office of the general counsel told employees that the department “emphasizes that it is in compliance” with recent US District Court for the District of Columbia orders to freeze executive directives that have been leveled against Covington & Burling, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and most recently, Susman Godfrey. President Donald Trump called out those firms for “weaponizing” the law and pursuing matters against his interests.

The directives told federal agencies to terminate any contracts held by the firms and to review, and in some cases, terminate, federal contracts held by the firms’ clients. The HHS memo did not specifically address the firms’ clients.

The HHS did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Four law firms sued the administration and successfully obtained temporary restraining orders against the directives with the exception of the portion denying security clearances for federal buildings. Covington & Burling was the target of an executive memo but has not sued the administration.

The HHS memo stated that “personnel from Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Covington and Burling and WilmerHale did not have security clearance at HHS; did not have badge access to our facilities, and did not have any existing contracts with HHS” as of “the date of the recent Executive Orders.”

In a court filing in Jenner’s litigation, US Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House budget director Russell Vought said agencies should follow the judge’s restraining order despite also saying the judge overstepped his authority and that “agencies are permitted to carry on their ordinary course of business which carries with it the authority to decide with whom to work.”

The health agency, which oversees a budget of more than $116 billion for fiscal year 2025, said it “will of course continue to comply with all applicable court orders moving forward.”

In their hearings for the restraining orders, law firms told the court that canceling clients’ federal contacts posed an existential threat to the firms’ financial well being.