The Perkins Coie law firm filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week that went to the firm for his work that represents the 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Lawyers representing Perkins Coie filed the lawsuit On Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Columbia district, together with a request for a temporary restriction order to prevent the application of the Executive Order.
“The order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversary justice system,” said the lawsuit. “Its simple purpose is to intimidate those who advocate for the points of view that the president perceives as an adverse to the opinions of his administration, if those opinions are presented in the name of payment or pro bonus clients.”
President Donald Trump signs executive orders at the Oval Office of the White House, March 6, 2025.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
It is the first legal challenge in what Trump has planned will be a wave of executive actions that seek to punish law firms that have represented their perceived political enemies.
The order, signed by Trump on March 6, requires that the lawyers working for Perkins Coie have their authorizations of stripped security and aims to terminate any government contract that may exist with the company or other entities it represents. In addition, it prohibits the agencies from hiring Perkins Coie employees and prohibits company employees from accessing government buildings.
“Perkins Coie brings this case reluctant,” said the demand. “The firm is composed of lawyers who advocate customers; their lawyers and employees are not activists or supporters. But Perkins Coie’s ability to represent the interests of their clients, and their ability to operate as a legal service business, are under a direct and imminent threat. Perkins Coie cannot allow its clients to be harassed.”
In his signature of the Order, Trump pointed out Perkins Coie’s work in the 2016 campaign and was related to the “Steele professor”, which detailed a series of highly wage accusations on Trump that were later investigated by the FBI and decided not to be substantial.
Marc Elias, who left Perkins Coie to begin his own firm in 2021, negotiated an agreement with the research and intelligence firm Fusion GPS to carry out opposition investigations on Trump that led to the 2016 elections. Fusion later hired a former British spy, Christopher Steele, who compiled the file.
However, as Perkins Coie’s demand pointed out, the two lawyers pointed out in the real text of the executive order “have not been with the company for years.”
“The objective of reprisal of the order is intentionally obvious to the general public and the press because the goal is to cool future lawyers to represent private clients,” said the demand.
