WilmerHale Asks for Relief From Trump Order Across All Agencies

WilmerHale is asking a federal judge to make clear that his opinion invalidating the executive order against the firm applies to all government agencies and not just the 51 of them and officers specifically named in the law firm’s original complaint.

The law firm said the government has refused to notify the unnamed agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and disputes that it is fully enjoined by Judge Richard Leon’s May 27 ruling. The ruling struck down an executive order targeting WilmerHale that had denied its employees access to federal buildings.

“WilmerHale is at risk that an executive order this Court has ‘struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional,’ will nevertheless be enforced against it by agencies and officers who may not be aware (or could potentially claim unawareness) of either this Court’s declaratory judgment or their obligation to comply with that declaration,” Erin Murphy, a lawyer for WilmerHale, wrote in a June 6 court filing.

President Donald Trump in March issued an executive order against WilmerHale, limiting its ability to appear before federal agencies, as retribution for the firm hiring Robert Mueller, who led a probe into the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged coordination with Russian state officials.

WilmerHale’s complaint named 26 federal agencies as defendants. The court’s ruling said the agencies must notify its staff of the ruling within seven days of the order. Ten days later, WilmerHale said it had yet to receive copies of such notifications from six of the named agencies. It’s now seeking dozens more agencies to be alerted.

On June 3, the goverment told the court it had notified the agencies named in the complaint and said they were in the process of complying with the judge’s order to nullify the president’s security sanctions.

A WilmerHale spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice on Friday asked Judge Leon to clarify that his ruling regarding the EO’s government investigation into racial discrimination applied to only WilmerHale. That section of the EO directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the DOJ to review whether legal industry practices comply with the Civil Rights Act.

The EEOC has been separately investigating a list of major law firms’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The case is: Wilmer Cutler Picker Hale and Dorr LLP v. Executive Office of the President, D.D.C., 1:25-cv-00917, 6/6/25.