The multiple executive orders issued by the Trump Administration affecting law firms’ businesses and the deals many of those firms struck to avoid penalties happened in the first quarter of the year, but the repercussions arrived in full in the second quarter. Offering up billions of dollars in pro bone work for Trump-approved causes in exchange for amnesty has led these seven law firms (and others) to begin losing clients and people.

Since late February, Trump has issued a half-dozen executive orders that direct agencies to remove law firms’ security clearances, limit access to federal buildings and remove their clients’ government contracts, citing connections between those firms and the president’s enemies. Trump has said many law firms have weaponized the legal system to hamper the work of the administration.

In order to stave off the effects of these orders on their business, many law firms negotiated “deals” with the Administration; contribute so much and so many hours of pro bono work for causes of the President’s choosing and be made exempt from the penalties. Some law firms so targeted, said “No”, many others capitulated.

Massive law firms that work on lucrative contracts, like Paul, Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, and others listed above, struck deals with the Trump administration after he aimed six executive orders at them, removing clearances, building access, and government contracts from firms he thought were attacking him. The law firms traded billions of dollars value of pro bono work to the Trump administration, allegedly in the name of protecting their clients and their contracts.

Emerging now are details that paint a different picture.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, “Support for the law firms that didn’t make deals has been growing inside the offices of corporate executives. At least 11 big companies are moving work away from law firms that settled with the administration or are giving—or intend to give—more business to firms that have been targeted but refused to strike deals…” 

Clients are the only relationships these law firms have lost. The lack of trust has become personal. For example, A group of seven partners is leaving Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which struck a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump in April to avert an executive order targeting its business, to join Cooley, which is representing one of the law firms fighting Trump’s orders.

One firm that said “No” was Perkins Coie. Trump targeted the law firm by issuing an executive order to suspend the security clearances of the firm’s attorneys and criticizing its diversity and inclusion policies.

Perkins Coie struck back, filing a lawsuit against the administration for actions that it said “violates core constitutional rights, including the rights to free speech and due process.” So far, the Constitution has held.