Trump Targets Law Firm Behind $787.5 Million Fox News Suit (4)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday targeted Susman Godfrey with an executive order as an aide said the administration was close to $1 billion in deals with law firms.

Susman represented Dominion Voting Systems Inc. in a blockbuster defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. in which the media company agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement. The firm is also pursuing a defamation case against Mike Lindell, a well-known Trump advocate and chief executive officer of MyPillow, on behalf of Dominion.

“We signed with many law firms, the ones that we thought were inappropriate, and they’ve all agreed to pay,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We have another five to go.”

While Trump has publicized four agreements with law firms that have promised $340 million in pro bono services for causes the president supports, aide Stephen Miller said the administration was getting close to $600 to $700 million in deals now, including those that haven’t been announced.

“The numbers are adding up,” Miller said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to be close to a billion soon.”

Susman will fight “this unconstitutional order,” the firm said in a statement on its website. “We believe in the rule of law, and we take seriously our duty to uphold it.”

Other litigation firms so far have also been choosing to fight Trump’s orders rather than settle with the president. Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, and Jenner & Block secured court orders temporarily blocking large parts of the orders against them. Susman was one of more than 500 law firms that signed on to an amicus brief filed April 4 that backed Perkins Coie.

Trump also leveled an executive order against Paul Weiss, which reached a deal to get the order withdrawn by pledging to commit $40 million in pro bono legal services to administration-aligned causes. Three other firms—Skadden, Milbank LLP, and Willkie Farr—pledged another $300 million in preemptive deals with the White House.

Trump also signed a memo that was directed at Covington & Burling, and that firm so far has neither filed suit or settled in response.

The orders, including the one against Susman, instruct agency heads to strip lawyers’ security clearances, restrict firm personnel from accessing federal buildings, and slash federal contracts held by firm clients. Trump also called for an investigation of Susman’s employment practice for possible violations of federal employment discrimination law, according to a White House fact sheet. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is already probing 20 top law firms for potential discrimination in their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Susman is home to some of the country’s top trial lawyers and is well-known for taking major contingency fee cases, meaning it only gets paid when it wins. Picking winners has made the firm’s lawyers some of the highest paid in the country. Profits of nearly $7 million per partner in fiscal 2023 ranked the firm fourth among the 100 largest law operations by revenue, according to American Lawyer data.

The Dominion case stemmed from the network’s reporting tying the company’s voting machines to conspiracy theories about a stolen 2020 election. “This firm is very involved in the election misconduct,” Miller said, without elaborating as to whether he was talking about the Dominion case.

In the Lindell case, a judge ordered the MyPillow founder to pay sanctions for claims he brought against election technology company Smartmatic International Holding. Lawyers for that company said last month Lindell has yet to pay the sanctions.