Lawyers of the world, unite!
Hundreds of attorneys converged upon Foley Square on National Law Day in what they described as a non-partisan demonstration against President Trump’s attacks against the independence of the legal industry and judiciary.
The organizers of the May 1 protest, sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, took the opportunity of Law Day — a holiday established by President Eisenhower in 1958 as a national day to celebrate the rule of law — a chance to encourage fellow lawyers to continue the fight against the Trump administration’s campaign to test the limits of the constitutional order.
“We must put partisanship to the side and strive to work together to protect and maintain the rule of law in this beautiful, multiracial experiment — this democracy — the United States of America,” exhorted Sheila S. Boston, a former NYC Bar Association president and a trial lawyer with Arnold & Porter, who emceed the rally.
Boston defined the rule of law as the mechanism that “supports the equality of all citizens by the law and prevents the arbitrary use of power by the government.”
Since Trump took office, his Administration has failed to comply with court orders related to a range of issues, publicly railed against judges whose decisions he disagreed with and targeted corporate law firms with executive orders.
“Most of us probably didn’t think these things could actually happen, at least not in any serious or large-scale way. But we are here because they are happening and we lawyers must be the first responders,” said Adrienne Koch, president of the New York County Lawyers Association.
Across the country, lawyers organized demonstrations at courthouses in protest of the current Trump administration’s overreach. A website dedicated to the “Law Day of Action,” organized by the nonprofit group Lawyers for Good Government, listed more than 100 such demonstrations.
Lawyers say they must uphold the rule of law
Thursday’s rally at Foley Square brought together the state and city bar associations with several prominent lawyers who recently advocated for the legal profession’s independence.
Steve Banks, a former New York City social services commissioner, resigned as the leader of the pro bono practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, after the white-shoe law firm struck a deal with President Trump to lift his executive order limiting its ability to represent clients with business before the federal government in return for pro bono legal work.
“Pro bono is about representing people of limited means and organizations that serve people of limited means. It’s defending public rights,” said Banks. “The essence of pro bono is representing the less powerful against the more powerful. That’s why protecting the rule of law matters because that’s the way the less powerful confront the more powerful.”
No matter what your skills or work context, Banks said, every lawyer must consider what they can do to uphold the rule of law in this “break-the-glass” moment.
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, spoke about how the civil rights organization, has doubled down launching lawsuits against the administration on behalf of individuals and institutions who are “who are in the crosshairs of the attack on democracy” — first and foremost, on behalf of immigrants.
As President Trump has unleashed a campaign of immigration enforcement that is testing the limits of executive power and has challenged or ignored the decisions of federal judges trying to restrain him, the ACLU has hit back with a series of legal challenges.
“We’ve sued on behalf of U.S. citizens wrongly and illegally picked up by the US deportation machine who suddenly find themselves snatched from their families, pulled out of schools and research labs, stripped of life-saving medical care, abducted off the street and thrown into prisons,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman vowed to resist the evasion of due process for both U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike.
“The cruelty, the inhumanity of it is hard to fathom. The pain is staggering, but there is also hope. There are victories to be had and that we’ve already had today. We can celebrate the release of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi,” she said, before calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk — both whom are being held in ICE custody for charges linked to pro-Palestinian activism.
Thomas Sipp, a young lawyer who resigned from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom after the elite law firm began talks to strike a deal with Trump over another executive order, said that he left his job out of a sense of “hope for the rule of law and everything that protects.”
Sipp, who moved to the U.S. from Japan when he was 10 and was raised by a single mother who “barely spoke English,” said that he felt compelled to fight for America’s legal ideals in honor of the immigrant experience.
“Hope alone is never going to be enough. Hope is meaningless unless it leads to courage. Courage to do what’s right in the face of difficult decisions,” Sipp said.
