The San Francisco Chronicle covered the firm’s statement, which was published Saturday and was one of the first issued by a U.S. law firm. The statement criticized President Trump's directives against law firms.
“I’d had it up to my gills with all these attacks on lawyers and judges,” Elliot Peters told the Chronicle. “Too many law firms are silent, and the risks right now to the legal profession and to the country are too great.”
Trump’s order to his Justice Department to penalize his legal opponents shows “how far removed this President, Attorney General and Administration are from our nation’s Constitution and bedrock values,” the statement said. “Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the Federal Government.”
Peters drafted the statement, which the partnership reviewed, approved, and issued publicly on Saturday. It was the first such response by a U.S. law firm.
Some people in the legal community “are scared of what might happen to them if they speak out,” said attorney John Keker, who co-founded the firm in 1978. But he and his partners concluded, "If there are adverse consequences, so be it.”
“If people don’t stand up and fight … President Trump will have his way and bring down the rule of law in the United States,” Keker said.
Read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle (paywall).