Judge rejects Trump admin’s ‘unpersuasive’ effort to disqualify major law firm in American Bar Association case
Federal Judge Amir Ali rejected a Justice Department motion to disqualify the law firm Susman Godfrey from representing the American Bar Association in its suit challenging President Trump’s executive orders against law firms. The firm was itself targeted by one of those orders and won a permanent injunction against it. The department argued that firm lawyers could not serve as both advocates and witnesses; Ali found the argument unpersuasive, noting that the government identified no lawyer likely to be a necessary witness and that the rule applies to individual lawyers, not whole firms. The ruling may help resolve a long-running discovery dispute.