NY Bill Aims to Exclude Trump Work From Bar Pro Bono Hours (2)

Free legal work for President Donald Trump wouldn’t count towards pro bono legal hours required for New York bar admission under a new bill quickly gaining steam in Albany.

The measure, printed Thursday in the waning weeks of New York’s legislative session, exempts free legal work “performed pursuant to an agreement with the federal government” from the required 50 hours law graduates must show to become barred.

“This legislation aims to send a clear message that bending the knee is never the right answer when dealing with fascists, and that we need New York’s lawyers to be champions, always, for the rule of law,” said the bill sponsor, Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a Manhattan Democrat.

If passed, the measure would present another challenge for firms that have struck deals to provide free legal work for the president. Law school graduates regularly begin jobs before they’re barred as lawyers and rely partly on their employers to help them meet New York’s bar admission requirements including pro bono hours.

Nine of the country’s largest law firms—a group that includes Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden, and Simpson Thacher—pledged $940 million in legal services for causes Trump supports, such as combating anti-semitism, assisting veterans, and “ensuring fairness” in the justice system. They made deals to avoid executive orders like those aimed at other firms with ties to lawyers who have investigated or sued the president and to resolve federal probes into diversity recruiting programs.

Trump wants to use the firms to defend police officers accused of misconduct, work on tariff issues, and help revive the coal industry, the president said. Several of the firms’ leaders said in internal communications that they would retain the right to choose the clients and matters they take on.

“It is an outrageous betrayal of Americans in need that the New York justice system would deny them affordable legal representation simply for being veterans or Jewish,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields. “This disgraceful discrimination undermines the very pro-bono initiatives President Trump has championed to ensure justice for all.”

It makes sense that there are attempts to regulate pro bono work for lawyers, according to David Glasgow, executive director of NYU Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

“It does seem to me that there should be some limiting principle to make sure that pro bono hours are actually being used in the public interest,” Glasgow said. “I do not think that whatever this administration decides it wants to do fits within the definition of public interest.”

Three of New York’s four appellate divisions—which handle who gets admitted to practice—didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for the fourth appellate division said honoring the bill if passed would be up to the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, which set the existing 50-hour pro bono rule.

A Court of Appeals spokesman said they have “no comment on pending legislation.”

The measure comes as lawmakers decide their priorities in the final four weeks of the legislative session. It’s not clear if the bill will pass before lawmakers break for the year on June 12.

Both chambers are run by Democrats and Gov. Kathy Hochul is a Democrat. The bill has a Senate sponsor, Manhattan Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and is expected to be conferenced among state lawmakers in the coming days.

A Hochul spokesman said Friday: “Governor Hochul will review the legislation if it passes the Senate and Assembly.”

The measure was reported earlier by Politico.

Democrats in Albany have taken other legislative shots at Trump since he took office around the same time their lawmaking session began. Earlier this month, the state budget included a $10 million fund for paying private lawyers who represent lawmakers defending themselves from Trump administration investigations.