A deep dive into the argument for how lawyers, particularly in mature legal systems, must move beyond passive roles and actively defend the rule of law in response to growing threats to democratic principles.
Month: April 2025
Glendon (1996), A Nation Under Lawyers: How the Crisis in the Legal Profession Is Transforming American Society
Glendon outlines the changes within the legal system and offers her assessment of the people and ideas that are transforming our law-dependent culture.
Shortage of immigration judges could slow down Trump deportation goals
The Trump administration has created a major bottleneck in the immigration court system by firing over two dozen immigration judges and prompting the resignation or reassignment of more than 100 others, resulting in a 70% …
Read the DOJ memo barring employees from participating in American Bar Ass’n events
On April 9, 2025, Law Dork published the full DOJ memo in which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche formally prohibited Justice Department employees from participating in American Bar Association (ABA) events in any official capacity. …
US Justice Dept bars its attorneys from participating in American Bar Association events
On April 9, the U.S. Department of Justice, under the Trump administration, announced it will no longer allow its attorneys to attend or speak at events hosted by the American Bar Association (ABA). In a …
Attorney General Bondi Threatens ABA’s Role as Law School Accreditor Over Diversity Standards
In a February 28, 2025 letter, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called on the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education to eliminate its diversity and inclusion requirements for law schools. Bondi …
Bar Associations File Amicus Brief in Support of Perkins Coie (Read it)
On April 8, 2025, the New York City Bar Association and more than a dozen other bar associations filed an amicus brief supporting Perkins Coie LLP in its legal challenge to Executive Order No. 14230 …
Capitulate or resist? Trump threats spur different responses, and alarm for democracy
UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky led an effort urging law school deans to condemn President Trump’s use of government power to retaliate against law firms, warning it threatens democratic principles and chills dissent. While …
An attack on the Constitution? Why Trump’s moves to punish law firms are causing alarm
President Trump’s recent wave of executive orders targeting major law firms—beginning with Perkins Coie and followed by Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale—has alarmed the legal community, raising fears of political retribution for representing …
Big Law launches a trickle of resistance against Trump’s crackdown
More than 500 law firms have signed an amicus brief supporting Perkins Coie in its legal challenge against a series of retaliatory executive orders issued by President Trump, which critics argue threaten the rule of …