Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, WHITE HOUSE NEWS—Executive order suspends security clearance, orders termination of contracts with another law firm, (Mar 19, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

Trump targeted Paul Weiss only days after a court entered a temporary restraining order in a suit regarding a similar order directed at Perkins Coie.

Another law firm has been added to the Trump Administration’s hit list. In an executive order issued last week, and due to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, President Trump has called on various agencies and officials to suspend any active security clearances “held by individuals at Paul Weiss and Mark Pomerantz,” and to review any contracts “with Paul Weiss or with entities that disclose doing business with Paul Weiss” as government contractors and “take appropriate steps to terminate” those contracts.

Building access. The EO also instructs that “The heads of all agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide guidance limiting official access from Federal Government buildings to employees of Paul Weiss when such access would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States. In addition, the heads of all agencies shall provide guidance limiting Government employees acting in their official capacity from engaging with Paul Weiss employees to ensure consistency with the national security and other interests of the United States.”

Reasoning. Why did the President issue this order? The order contends: “In 2021, a Paul Weiss partner and former leading prosecutor in the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller brought a pro bono suit against individuals alleged to have participated in the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, on behalf of the District of Columbia Attorney General.”

It also contends that, “[i]n 2022, Paul Weiss hired unethical attorney Mark Pomerantz, who had previously left Paul Weiss to join the Manhattan District Attorney's office solely to manufacture a prosecution against me and who, according to his co-workers, unethically led witnesses in ways designed to implicate me. After being unable to convince even Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that a fraud case was feasible, Pomerantz engaged in a media campaign to gin up support for this unwarranted prosecution.”

And a DEI program as well. Third on the list of Paul Weiss’s supposed suspension-worthy actions was that it had a DEI program.

Perkins Coie redux. Just days before the executive order, a federal judge has temporarily restrained the Trump administration from implementing or enforcing parts of an executive order specifically targeting the law firm Perkins Coie LLP. The court enjoined implementation of parts of that order that address its purpose, that seek to cut off government contracts involving the law firm, and that restrict the firm’s employees from entering federal buildings. The ruling did not address other parts of the executive order related to alleged race discrimination and a directive to suspend security clearances held by Perkins Coie staff.

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