Judge Rejects Trump Administration Bid to Disqualify Susman Godfrey From American Bar Association Lawsuit
WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge on Friday allowed the law firm Susman Godfrey to continue representing the American Bar Association in its lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration, rejecting government arguments that the firm's involvement in matters at issue in the litigation created a conflict requiring its disqualification, Reuters reported on October 16. The case, American Bar Association v. Executive Office of the President, No. 1:25-cv-01888-AHA, is before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The ABA filed the lawsuit last year, alleging the Trump administration adopted an unlawful policy of targeting law firms and lawyers based on their legal work, hiring, diversity policies and political ties. Susman Godfrey was among the firms targeted in a series of executive orders aimed at law firms; it is one of three firms that won court orders last year permanently barring enforcement of the orders against them, and the administration's appeal is pending. The administration in July asked U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to disqualify Susman Godfrey from representing the ABA, arguing the firm's lawyers could be witnesses in the case, and saying that removing the firm would not harm the ABA because the organization "may have as its choice of counsel presumably any law firm in the country, or at least most law firms."
In his ruling, Ali wrote that the administration had not shown that lawyers at Susman Godfrey would simultaneously appear as witnesses in the lawsuit while also representing the ABA, and that even if there were such a witness, professional attorney rules would not automatically disqualify the rest of the law firm. "That the ABA seeks discovery about communications related to Susman Godfrey does not indicate the lawyers representing the ABA here, who may not have even been involved in the communications, are likely to be necessary witnesses," Ali wrote. The ABA and Susman Godfrey assailed the administration's bid as "a new chapter in the ongoing effort to intimidate and chill the speech of the American legal profession." The White House had no immediate comment, and the ABA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters said. Ali is an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden.
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Photo: 图：E. Barrett Prettyman 联邦法院大楼（华盛顿，哥伦比亚特区联邦地区法院所在地）资料照片。照片：AgnosticPreachersKid，公共领域，Wikimedia Commons。File photo: the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
