ICYMI: Demand Justice “Big Law Cowards” Campaign Highlighted on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2025
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Washington, DC – Last night, on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow featured a segment on Demand Justice’s “Big Law Cowards” campaign. After showing the new ad that calls on law firms to stop “bending the knee” to Trump, Maddow explained the campaign’s dual purpose, saying that “the idea is both to shame these law firms, certainly, but also to tell them that it’s not too late to change course. If you made one of these deals, you can cancel it.” The campaign has already begun direct actions, including displaying truck-mounted billboards and posting signs outside the offices of these firms.
This week, Demand Justice launched a campaign calling out some of the nation’s top law firms for caving to Trump’s extortion and, among other promises, pledging nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services that the President has made clear he intends to exploit to serve his interests. The “Big Law Cowards” campaign included the launch of a new webpage to track the firms that have capitulated to Trump, as well as a mobile billboard and signage around downtown Washington D.C.
WATCH: Advocacy Group Launches Campaign to Pressure Big Law Not to “Bend the Knee” to Trump
See transcript below:
RACHEL MADDOW: This is a part of a new ad campaign launched by the group Demand Justice. Watch.
DEMAND JUSTICE AD: Something alarming is happening inside America’s top law firms under threat from Donald Trump. Some of the most powerful firms in the country are bending the knee. This isn’t just about lawyers. If no one stands to challenge the government in court, if people can’t get the representation they need, there’s no rule of law. Just rule by power. Stop bending the knee. Fight back.
MADDOW: This new ad is part of a campaign from Demand Justice that’s called Big Law Cowards, not to put too fine a point on it. It’s designed to put pressure on nine big name law firms to change course. These are nine firms that tried to appease Trump, and make him more kindly disposed to them than they are to than he is to other law firms by making deals with him to provide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free legal services to causes Trump chooses. In some cases, the firms promise to run their personnel policies at their firms along lines that Trump demands. This Big Law Cowards campaign also put this truck mounted billboard on the street mounted billboard on the street in DC this week, outside the law offices of one of the big law firms that did one of these capitulation appeasement deals with Trump. The group also posted these signs outside the firm’s offices with the same message, along with what they say is the total amount of money these nine appeasement law firms have pledged to Trump in the form of free legal services. Demand Justice says they plan to take this kind of action outside not just this one, but all nine of the big law firms who have capitulated to and tried to appease Trump. The head of that organization now telling NBC News “When you see some of the most powerful law firms in the country, if not the world, unwilling to stand up to the administration when ordinary people are speaking out, we think it’s really important to shine a bright light on that and really show that ordinary people demand that those most powerful speak out against the administration and not bend the knee.” The idea is both to shame these law firms, certainly, but also to tell them that it’s not too late to change course. If you made one of these deals, you can cancel it. You don’t have to stick to it. He’s not sticking to his side of it. It’s not too late to change course and get on the right side of history.
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