About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

94 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. Arguendo 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/gwargu94 and id is 1 raw text is: Pro Bono Publico Versus Pro Bono Presidential S.I Strong* ABSTRACT In March and April 2025, the Trump Administration issued a series of executive orders directed at various law firms that had represented clients or undertaken actions with which the President disagreed. Those executive orders imposed various sanctions capable of destroying the firms financially. The Administration also threatened numerous other law firms with similar types of executive orders. Although a few law firms challenged the executive orders in court, the majority of firms targeted by the President entered into informal settlement agreements whereby the firms promised to provide between $40 million and $125 million worth offree pro bono legal services to causes supported by the President. In return, the President either revoked any sanction-containing executive orders or withheld from issuing such orders. This Essay examines the propriety of these pro bono agreements from several perspectives. First, this Essay considers the voluntary nature of pro bono and examines the propriety ofthe executive branch coercing private lawyers to accede to particular pro bono obligations. Second, this Essay discusses the nature of pro bono activities as a means of assisting indigent individuals and considers whether presidential efforts to direct how private law firms fulfill their pro bono obligations constitute an improper privatization of the executive branch's policy goals, particularly given presidential cuts to and curtailment of conventional public means offulfilling those policy goals. Third, this Essay considers whether and to what extent the executive orders and settlement agreements discussed herein violate hard or softprinciples of international law. The Essay concludes with brief suggestions about how to proceed. TABLE OF CONTENTS IN TR O D U CTIO N ........................................................................................ . 2 I. PRO BONO AS A VOLUNTARY ENDEAVOR, NOT A PRESIDENTIALLY COMPELLABLE ACTIVITY......................................6 II. PRO BONO AS SERVING THE PUBLIC GOOD, NOT THE PRESIDENTIAL G OOD ................................................................... 11 III. MANDATING PRO BONO AS VIOLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW ..... 17 C O N C L U SIO N .......................................................................................... . . 19 * Ph.D. (law), University of Cambridge (U.K.); D.Phil., University of Oxford (U.K.); J.D., Duke University. The author, who is qualified as an attorney in New York and Illinois and as a solicitor in England and Wales, is currently the K.H. Gyr Professor of Private International Law at Emory University School of Law. Many thanks to Philip Allen Lacovara for assistance in obtaining research materials and to Robert Bartkus, Jon Heintz, Mark Kantor, Michael Perry, Jennifer Romig, and Brad Wendel for comments on an earlier draft of this Essay. All errors are the Author's own. June 2025 Vol. 94 Arg. 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most