US government subpoenas Big Law leaders over Trump executive orders dispute

The US Justice Department (DOJ) has subpoenaed 13 Big Law firms to sit for depositions, including nine which struck deals with the government to provide almost $1 billion in pro bono legal advice, The New York Times reported last week.

The move is in response to a lawsuit brought in June 2025 by the American Bar Association (ABA) over executive orders President Trump issued against several top US firms and individual lawyers. 

The suit alleges that the Trump administration has operated an “ongoing unlawful policy of intimidation" using “vast powers” to “coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, clauses and policy positions the president does not like”.

The list

According to The New York Times, the DOJ plans to depose Paul Weiss' former chairman Brad Karp, who stepped down in February over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, alongside Kirkland chair John Ballis and Latham chair Richard Trobman.

It also intends to question senior leaders from Cadwalader, Skadden, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Milbank, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher, as well as leaders of the four firms that fought the executive orders in court. 

The demands

As part of its suit, the ABA has demanded the administration turn over communications about the deals between Trump’s personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn, former chief strategist Stephen Bannon and the White House. 

The DOJ tried to quash the subpoenas, arguing that disclosing the information would undermine an established practice of presidents being able to get confidential advice from their closest staff.

Now, it has issued its own subpoenas for the same information but from the firms themselves. The New York Times reported that some lawyers representing the firms have speculated that the move might be aimed at getting these firms to encourage the ABA to drop its demand.