Cadwalader Agrees to $100 Million Pro Bono Deal With Trump Administration

On April 11, 2025, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, a firm that had previously said it would not represent Trump, agreed to provide $100 million in pro bono legal services for Trump-approved causes to avoid a punitive executive order, joining four other firms (Kirkland & Ellis, Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Latham & Watkins) that struck similar deals the same day, collectively committing roughly $600 million in free legal work. The arrangement mattered because Cadwalader's pro bono spending the prior year had totaled only about $5 million, meaning the pledge required a roughly twentyfold increase; the firm later looked to satisfy it partly by helping a district attorney's office defend criminal convictions on appeal, an unusual use of pro bono resources. The deal coincided with reports of significant attorney departures from the firm. Taken together with the other 2025 law-firm settlements, it reinforced a pattern in which the threat of executive action reshaped how major firms allocated legal resources, favoring administration-aligned causes over firms' traditional pro bono priorities.