A nonprofit group wants a court to force the Trump administration to hand over documents that may show how law firms pledging nearly $1 billion in free legal services to the president are paying off their tabs.
American Oversight filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Justice and Commerce Departments for failing to produce records related to deals that the White House struck with nine major law firms.
The organization in October it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the agencies, American Oversight said in the complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The requests seek to shed light on the work that the firms are doing for the administration.
Thursday’s complaint alleges that the departments have failed to comply with the time-limit provisions of FOIA. The government agencies did not immediately reply to request for comment.
Nine law firms—Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Milbank; Latham & Watkins; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Kirkland & Ellis; A&O Shearman, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft—entered into agreements with the administration.
The firms agreed to provide legal services after some were hit with federal inquiries into diversity hiring practices. The deals came as Trump issued punitive executive orders against Paul Weiss and four other firms that threatened to punish clients and withhold security clearances for lawyers.
The terms of the agreements and how the firms are going to make good on their $940 million commitment of free legal services remain murky. Democrats in Congress have launched their own inquiries into the deals.
Simpson Thacher, Paul Weiss, Kirkland, and Skadden were all tapped to provide legal work for the Commerce Department.
“When elite law firms decide it’s safer to appease political power than uphold the rule of law, the public deserves to know what was bargained away,” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight in a statement.
“Lawyers swear an oath to serve the public and the Constitution, not abandon principle when it threatens their bottom line,” she said.
The organization is asking that the court force the departments to conduct searches and produce within 20 days any and all nonexempt records to its FOIA requests.
The case is American Oversight v. U.S. Department of Commerce et al, D.D.C., 1:25-cv 04302, 12/11/25
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