Trump says he may ask top law firms to work for free on US trade deals

By Jeff Mason, Tom Hals

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will seek to get major U.S. law firms to do free legal work to support his trade team's negotiations with other countries after four firms in recent weeks agreed to donate legal services to his administration.

"We have a lot of law firms that have paid me a lot of money in the form of legal fees. We're going to probably use those firms ... if we can - I think we can," Trump said during a meeting of his cabinet at the White House. "I think we're going to try to use these very prestigious firms to help us out with the trade."

Trump did not mention any firms by name.

The four law firms that have made deals with Trump have agreed to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of free legal services to advance causes approved by the administration, such as support for veterans.

Trump has targeted several firms with punitive executive orders. These firms have represented Trump's political adversaries or clients bringing legal challenges to his policies, or employed attorneys who took part in past government investigations aimed at the president. His executive orders sought to restrict their lawyers from accessing government buildings and officials, and threatened to cancel federal contracts held by their clients.

During his meeting in the White House Cabinet Room on Thursday, Trump floated whether the legal legwork of firms could be used to help his trade team.

Trump said on Wednesday that he paused hefty reciprocal tariffs on multiple nations, except for China, just hours after imposing them because his administration had been contacted by more than 75 countries that wanted to work on trade deals.

The president has accused the firms he has targeted of "weaponizing" the justice system, which they deny. His orders also have faulted the firms for workplace diversity policies. Some conservatives consider such policies discriminatory against majority groups such as white people.

The firm Paul Weiss, which had been targeted in an executive order, last month agreed to donate the equivalent of $40 million in free legal services. Skadden Arps, Milbank and Willkie Farr reached deals without being targeted by an order, with each firm providing $100 million in pro bono legal work.

Representatives for those firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment including whether they viewed work on trade deals as matching the commitments they made to Trump.

Three firms - Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block - have sued to challenge executive orders against them. Judges overseeing the lawsuits have temporarily blocked key provisions of the orders, finding that Trump's directives likely violated constitutional protections for speech and due process.

The president also mused on Thursday about whether he would need the legal assistance from the firms with which he made deals after leaving the White House.

"Hopefully I won't need that ... after it ends - after, after we leave. Maybe I'll need it," Trump said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington, Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and David Thomas in Chicago; Editing by Will Dunham)