Skadden Reaches $100 Million Pro Bono Deal to Avoid Executive Order

On March 28, 2025, President Trump announced that Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom had agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono legal services for causes the administration supports, such as assisting veterans and combating antisemitism, in order to avoid becoming the target of a punitive executive order. The firm also agreed not to deny representation to clients based on lawyers' personal political views and to avoid what the deal called “illegal DEI” hiring practices. The agreement was the second such deal, following Paul Weiss's, and the first struck by a firm that had not already been hit with an executive order, suggesting firms were negotiating preemptively to avoid becoming targets. It came shortly after Elon Musk publicly pressured Skadden over unrelated litigation. The arrangement deepened concerns among legal-ethics observers that the administration was using the threat of executive action to extract financial and policy concessions from private firms without any judicial process, reshaping how major law firms manage political risk.