Lawyers fighting over President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting four major law firms aired conflicting positions Monday for how the appeals court should handle the cases going forward.
The Justice Department’s legal team asked the court to pause litigation until the court decides another case involving a Trump-targeted lawyer, Mark Zaid, given the “overlapping issues” among the cases. Short of that, the cases should be consolidated, the government lawyers said.
In the same joint motion filed in the US Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit, the four firms shot back, saying they “strongly oppose the government’s proposal to hold these four cases in abeyance pending the resolution of a later-filed—and almost entirely unrelated—appeal.”
The firms—Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey—stated the facts underlying the cases are too different to bear on each other. Rather, the lawyers said the cases should be partially consolidated and scheduled for same-day argument before the same panel of judges.
“Each case raises separate legal and factual issues,” the lawyers argued. “In a case with such high stakes, each appellee should have the opportunity to put forward its own arguments, through its chosen counsel and in its own voice, in response to the government’s appeal.”
Monday’s filing by the parties is the latest chapter in court battles over President Trump’s campaign to crack down on lawyers and firms with ties to those he perceives as enemies.
The appeals court in September told the law firms to file a motion regarding how to move forward with the cases given the similarities between all four.
Trump’s orders barred the four firms’ lawyers from having security clearances and entering federal buildings. The president, who said he was fighting back against the weaponization of the justice system, also threatened to cancel government contracts held by the firms and their clients.
Appellate Heavyweights
The firms are represented by a who’s who of the appellate bar. Three former solicitors general—Paul Clement, Donald B. Verrilli Jr., and Elizabeth Prelogar—represent three of the firms. Perkins Coie is represented by Dane Butswinkas of Williams & Connolly.
Abhishek Kambli is representing the Justice Department.
The law firms convinced four federal judges to halt executive orders that President Trump had issued against them, setting the stage for a fight in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Zaid, the whistleblower lawyer who represented an intelligence community member who accused Donald Trump of attempting to extort Ukraine into producing dirt on Joe Biden in the lead up to the 2020 election, sued Trump last year to reclaim his security clearances. The DOJ appealed that case too after a federal judge ruled Zaid was entitled to remedies.
Wall Street firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison was also hit with a punitive executive order, but it was rescinded after the firm cut a deal with the administration to provide $40 million worth of free legal services. Eight other firms cut preemptive deals for a total of nearly one billion dollars in free legal help for the Trump administration.
The case is Jenner & Block LLP v. DOJ, D.C. Cir., 25-05265, 1/26/26
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