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LetMyPeopleVote

(168,883 posts)
15. What prominent law firms and Lando Calrissian have in common
Mon Jun 2, 2025, 03:25 PM
Jun 2025

Here is another post predicting that law firms will jettison their deals with trump

Lando Calrissian famously complained, “This deal keeps getting worse all the time.” How many law firms are saying the same thing about their Trump deals?

Remember when Lando Calrissian complained, in reference to his agreement with Darth Vader, “This deal keeps getting worse all the time”?

I wonder how many law firms are now saying the same thing about their deals with Trump. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-04-17T15:57:45.276Z

Remember when Lando Calrissian complained, in reference to his agreement with Darth Vader, “This deal keeps getting worse all the time”?

I wonder how many law firms are now saying the same thing about their deals with Trump

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/prominent-law-firms-lando-calrissian-common-rcna201726

In “The Empire Strikes Back,” Lando Calrissian struck an agreement with Darth Vader, which probably made sense to him at the time. In fact, Calrissian told Han Solo in the 1980 “Star Wars” movie that he had made a deal that would keep the Empire out of Cloud City “forever.”

As the Cloud City administrator soon learned, however, the Empire did not fully intend to follow through on its commitments, even if Calrissian held up his end of the bargain. As the film’s dramatic third act, Vader told his ostensible partner: “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

As he realized that he had reached an agreement with someone he shouldn’t have trusted, Calrissian complained, “This deal keeps getting worse all the time.”.....

But as The New York Times reported, some of these same firms are finding, as Calrissian put it, that their deals keep getting worse all the time.

When some of the nation’s biggest law firms agreed to deals with President Trump, the terms appeared straightforward: In return for escaping the full force of his retribution campaign, the firms would do some free legal work on behalf of largely uncontroversial causes like helping veterans. Mr. Trump, it turns out, has a far more expansive view of what those firms can be called on to do.


Instead of working on anodyne causes, the firms are discovering that the president effectively believes that he sees their attorneys as his own. The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that Trump has suggested in recent days that he wants the firms to help him negotiate trade deals and possibly help revive the coal industry, too......

Harold Hongju Koh, a professor of international law at Yale Law School, told the Times, in reference to the firms, “They thought they made one-shot deals which they would fulfill. But the administration seems to think that they have subjected these firms to indentured servitude.”

Putting aside the question of whether the firms, like Calrissian, should’ve seen this coming, the broader question is whether the firms will do what Calrissian ultimately did and reverse course.

Indeed, it’s not my place to give the firms’ partners advice, but it is worth noting that if they didn’t enter into a legally binding contract with Trump, and they’re no longer pleased with the president’s demands and expectations, there’s nothing stopping them from joining the firms that have already decided to fight back.

If the pressure builds, these law firms will start ignoring their deals with trump

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

GOOD! Paladin Jun 2025 #1
ETTD AZJonnie Jun 2025 #2
I'm glad there's still some courage out there. n/t SpankMe Jun 2025 #3
FAFO law firms mcar Jun 2025 #4
My oldest child sent me the WSJ article on this LetMyPeopleVote Jun 2025 #5
Good Quanto Magnus Jun 2025 #6
Still can't figure it out. What were they thinking? dchill Jun 2025 #7
They were thinking Trump and fascism are unstoppable Bluetus Jun 2025 #8
Yes, "such actions by Trump are blatantly illegal..." dchill Jun 2025 #10
They should have hired themselves some good lawyers and fought it. Bluetus Jun 2025 #13
It's a thought! 🤔 dchill Jun 2025 #16
This is the best summation of this I've read. yardwork Jun 4 #22
Those firms deserve to go under. cstanleytech Jun 2025 #9
How could you trust a law firm that caved in to Trump's blackmail and extortion? Martin68 Jun 2025 #11
WSJ-The Law Firms That Appeased Trump--and Angered Their Clients LetMyPeopleVote Jun 2025 #12
"other firms may abandoned their 'deals'" BumRushDaShow Jun 2025 #14
What prominent law firms and Lando Calrissian have in common LetMyPeopleVote Jun 2025 #15
Yup. BumRushDaShow Jun 2025 #17
smart Evolve Dammit Jun 2025 #18
Maddow Blog-Law firms that appeased Trump confront the consequences of their misjudgment LetMyPeopleVote Jun 2025 #19
This made me smile LetMyPeopleVote Jun 3 #20
Glenn Kirschner-Companies are moving their business away from law firms that caved/capitulated to Trump, LetMyPeopleVote Jun 4 #21
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