\n<\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on lawyers it does not like is something people thought \u201ccould never happen in the United States\u201d, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA) has said.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Guardian, Michelle Behnke, who was in London for a gathering on the safety and protection of lawyers, said the ABA was used to dispensing advice to associations in other countries but the tables had turned to an extent.<\/p>\n
Since taking office, Donald Trump and his government have placed restrictions on some lawyers and law firms, including their ability to freely represent clients, mostly because they have done legal work that the president has opposed or they have been associated with prosecutors who investigated him.<\/p>\n
Among the tactics adopted have been terminating lawyers\u2019 security clearances, severing firms\u2019 government contracts, refraining from hiring certain firms\u2019 employees for federal government jobs and limiting lawyers\u2019 access to federal buildings.<\/p>\n
In response, the ABA filed a lawsuit in June asking a federal court to declare unconstitutional the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cunlawful policy of intimidation against lawyers and law firms\u201d.<\/p>\n
Behnke, who rubbed shoulders with lawyers from countries such as Turkey and Zimbabwe at the event hosted by the Bar Council and the Law Society of England and Wales, said: \u201cPeople are aware of the executive orders against law firms to suggest that no one in a law firm could enter any federal building \u2013 that would mean that you would not be able to practise law. So that\u2019s an assault or a threat against law firms, and as effective as physical threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople maybe a year or two ago might have said that could never happen in the United States. [This shows] no place is immune, no place is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the idiosyncrasy <\/strong><\/em>of the situation was not lost on counterparts from other countries she had met in London, who had taken sustenance from the role reversal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve met with lawyers from around the world,\u201d Behnke said. \u201cThey have both given support and encouragement, suggested that they believe the ABA is taking the right steps in \u2026 bringing suit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are often the one coming to the support and aid of other countries and I think some of the other countries are realising that they can also return the aid and that actually buoys them and makes them know that their role as attorneys, their law societies, are equally important.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Maga movement has pushed the US towards more antagonistic relationships with other countries but Behnke has drawn on the \u201cvery comforting\u201d international support, which she said had been a reminder that \u201cyou should not be myopic and only focused on what\u2019s happening in your country. We can learn from each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Nine big US law firms capitulated in the face of the threatened sanctions, striking deals to collectively provide almost $1bn in free legal services to the Trump administration or causes it supports.<\/p>\n Others have fought back, successfully challenging executive orders imposing sanctions, as has the ABA. As a result, the largest voluntary lawyer organisation in the US, with about 170,000 dues-paying members, has been called a \u201csnooty\u201d organisation of \u201cleftist lawyers\u201d and accused of illegal diversity efforts by the White House.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n But Behnke is clear on the importance of workplace diversity. \u201cI think issues around gender equality within the profession, diversity, equity and inclusion \u2013 and I use the full words, as opposed to the letters [DEI], because the letters themselves have become toxic \u2013 are all part and parcel of the rule of law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the legal profession reflects the people we serve, the clients we serve, the communities we live in, that\u2019s key and that helps people understand the rule of law and the importance and gives people trust and confidence in the systems. As a profession, we have tended to lag a little bit behind on some of these issues, not for lack of working \u2026 I think a black woman talking about it is pretty important right now.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that while \u201cyou put 10 lawyers in a room, you\u2019re going to get 11 different opinions\u201d, when it came to the rule of law there was \u201cabsolute unanimity\u201d in understanding its importance and the chaos that reigns in its absence.<\/p>\n When asked why lawyers were being singled out in so many countries, Behnke paraphrased \u2013 appropriately, given her location \u2013 the words of England\u2019s greatest playwright in Henry VI Part 2.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the times lend themselves discord and law and lawyers are the ones that hold people to account,\u201d she said. \u201cShakespeare [said] if you want anarchy, first kill all the lawyers. It really was an understanding that lawyers are perhaps an impediment to that anarchy and that ability to take over or disrupt the rule of law. So I\u2019m not terribly surprised that we are a bit of a target.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on lawyers it does not like is something people thought \u201ccould never happen in the United States\u201d, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA) has said. In an interview with the Guardian, Michelle Behnke, who was in London for a gathering on the safety and protection of lawyers, said the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1932,689,3095,6419,175,2541,798,871,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-25708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-bar","9":"tag-chief","10":"tag-crackdown","11":"tag-immune","12":"tag-law","13":"tag-lawyers","14":"tag-place","15":"tag-shows","16":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}