Keker, Van Nest & Peters was featured in several news stories about the White House memo “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and Federal Court.” The memo was issued March 22 and directs the Attorney General and Department of Homeland Security to consider seeking sanctions against lawyers or law firms that handle cases involving immigration, election integrity, or litigation against the federal government.
The coverage focused on the firm’s statement in response:
Trump’s new memorandum underscores how far removed this President, Attorney General and Administration are from our nation’s Constitution and bedrock values. Our liberties depend on lawyers’ willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the Federal Government. An attack on lawyers who perform this work is inexcusable and despicable. Our profession owes every client zealous legal representation without fear of retribution, regardless of their political affiliation or ability to pay. We encourage law firm leaders to sign on to an amicus effort in support of Perkins Coie’s challenge to the Administration’s executive order targeting the firm, and to resist the Administration’s erosion of the rule of law.
--John Keker, Robert Van Nest and Elliot Peters, Managing Partner Laurie Carr Mims, and the Keker, Van Nest & Peters Partnership
The following news organizations and media outlets featured the firm’s statement in their coverage of the White House memo and included quotes from Peters.
“If the tough, well-educated, smart, financially secure lawyers aren’t going to stand up for the most basic principles of what lawyers do, then I think we’re kind of lost,” Elliot Peters of law firm Keker Van Nest & Peters told Reuters.
“I am concerned about a government where one person is an authoritarian figure and Congress is silent and the courts are marginalized or threatened with impeachment when they rule on the lawfulness of government action,” Peters told Law.com.
"People who are looking at this one order and trying to convince themselves that there's no threat to the rule of law and that there's no attack on the legal profession and it's not part of an effort to exert complete control over our government are deluding themselves," Peters told Law360 Pulse.
Law.com: Litigation Boutiques Push Back Against Trump's Law Firm Memo
Daily Journal: Keker Firm Blasts Trump Over Law Firm Sanctions Order
Law360 Pulse: Lawyers Slam Trump Memo On 'Vexatious' Attys
ABA Journal: 2 Firms Speak Out After Trump Seeks Lawyer Sanctions for 'Unreasonable and Vexatious' Suits Against US
Reuters: Trump Targets Lawyers in Immigration Cases, Lawsuits Against Administration
Wall Street Journal: Law Firms Scramble to Avoid Being Trump’s Next Target
The New York Times: With New Decree, Trump Seeks to Cow the Legal Profession
The Guardian: ‘A Capitalistic Cowardice’: Big Law Firms Being Threatened by Trump Face Pressure to Speak Out
San Francisco Chronicle: As Trump Ramps Up Law Firm Attacks, S.F. Lawyers Are Starting to Push Back
Cato Institute Blog: Lawyers Who Anger the Feds Face New Penalties by Decree
The Hill: Paul Weiss Settlement Is a Disgrace