Mayer Brown’s Van Gorp Is Sitting Out Trump’s Big Law Fight

Mayer Brown chair Jon Van Gorp is happy to keep out of the political crosshairs during the Trump White House’s onslaught against law firms.

The administration “seems to have a little bit of an ax to grind with Big Law,” Van Gorp said in an interview. “For us, it’s been trying to stay clear of the kinds of events that have triggered some of the actions, because I don’t think anything good comes out of either negotiating a deal or going to court over an executive order.”

Van Gorp, a financial services lawyer in his fifth year at the helm of the firm, is leaning into Mayer Brown’s long history of bipartisanship. He’s also ratcheted up the internal review process for determining which cases the firm takes on and adapted its approach to diversity.

The Chicago-founded firm has so far stayed off President Donald’s Trump’s target list as some rivals fight the administration in court over punitive executive orders against them. Mayer Brown is also not among the firms hit with federal discrimination probes over their diversity programs or the group of nine pledging nearly $1 billion in free legal services to resolve those investigations and avoid executive orders.

Jon Van Gorp

Photo: Mayer Brown

The firm has done well in a tougher than expected year for the legal industry. Mayer Brown scored a string of lucrative M&A deals over a recent two-month span, including advising Boeing on a $10.5 billion transaction with private equity firm Thoma Bravo LP.

“We’ve had quite a run over the last couple of months—we’ve done 12 or 13 $1 billion or more deals and we continue to have a healthy pipeline,” said Van Gorp, who is known for his work on mortgage-backed securities. The firm’s key areas include financial services, insurance, energy projects and infrastructure, capital markets, lending and private credit.

Mayer Brown is on the cusp of clearing the $2 billion mark in gross revenue this year, which likely would keep it among the country’s 30 largest law firms. The 36 partners it hired through July 2 is up more than 40% compared with all of last year, according to the firm.

‘Thinking Twice’

The firm is still taking on challenges to the government, Van Gorp said, but also is “being very careful about picking our spots” when to comes to issues that are “personal to the president.”

“We’re a little careful with executive orders, depending on what it is,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a secret that the strategy that the president has deployed has been pretty effective: Law firms are thinking twice now.”

The firm in May sued the State Department on behalf of nonprofit groups to compel the Trump administration to turn over information about the use of biometric data for individuals seeking asylum in the US. Days after Trump was elected to return to the White House in November, the firm joined the American Civil Liberties Union to sue US Immigration and Customs Enforcement for information on its network of deportation flights. They cited Trump’s “stated plan to arrest noncitizens on a vast scale and operate around-the-clock deportation flights using ICE Air,” in support of their public records requests.

“We’re still focused on the rule of law,” Van Gorp said. “We’re still here to do work for people who can’t afford legal services. But we also want to be sensitive to what we’re taking on.”

Four law firms, including Chicago-founded Jenner & Block, won court rulings striking down Trump’s executive orders restricting their lawyers’ access to federal buildings, revoking security clearances, and threatening their clients’ government contracts. Trump targeted the firms over ties to lawyers involved in investigations and cases against him. Paul Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Willkie Farr, and Latham & Watkins were among those who struck deals with Trump to steer clear of similar orders.

Jenner detailed the risk to firms in court filings. More than 40% of Jenner’s revenue over the past five years came from clients who are government contractors, subcontractors, or affiliates, the firm said. It noted its lawyers were handling roughly 540 matters in federal courts and others before agencies, requiring access to buildings.

“We need security clearances, and we need to be able to operate in the government system that administers the law,” said Van Gorp. “It’s kind of essential to what we do.”

Mayer Brown’s major clients include JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citibank. Its lobbying arm has advised the likes of U.S. Steel Corp., American Express Co., AT&T Inc., and Chubb Ltd. this year, public disclosures show. Mayer Brown Supreme Court litigator Andrew Pincus is part of a team representing TikTok in its fight for survival in the US.

The Boeing deal is an example of a lateral hire paying off, Van Gorp said. The firm in 2021 poached Jason Quintana, a Perkins Coie M&A partner who previously worked in-house at Boeing.

Quintana’s hire “enhanced” the firm’s relationship with Boeing, Van Gorp said. “We look to continue to find laterals who can unlock client relationships here,” he said.

The firm has seen some notable exits. Jenner earlier this month picked up a five-lawyer team of Mayer Brown mass torts attorneys, led by partners Richard Bulger and Daniel Ring, who are handling PFAS cases for 3M Co. They cited Jenner’s decision to fight Trump’s executive order against it as a motivating factor.

Van Gorp isn’t convinced that firms taking a stand either way will have much impact on their bottom lines.

“There are some clients who have come out and said they are going to try to support the firms that have taken a stand, but whether all that actually translates to work is sticky,” Van Gorp said.

“There’s not a clear move I’m seeing where the firms fighting it out in court are getting a great new amount of business, or the firms that have done deals are losing business,” he said.