New York State Bar Association Condemns Executive Orders Punishing Lawyers for Representing Causes the Trump Administration Doesn’t Like
3.10.2025
Domenick Napoletano, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued the following statement about the Trump administration’s retaliation against lawyers who represent causes the president does not like:
“The Executive Orders attacking lawyers and law firms for doing their jobs – which include representing any cause the president doesn’t like — threaten to upend a bedrock principle of the American legal system. Our laws require that even the most deeply despised segments of our society are entitled to representation, and attorneys are expected to put their personal beliefs aside and represent unpopular clients and unpopular causes with the same passion and commitment that they would bring to any other legal matter. When our government vilifies lawyers and law firms for representing causes that the administration despises, our system of justice is undermined. If all members of our society do not have access to justice, there is no justice.”
The New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Attorney Professionalism studied this issue in more depth in a report, which the association’s governing body, the House of Delegates, approved in January.
