In the ongoing investigation about the involvement of the 2016 campaign of Republican candidate Donald trump and Russian officials, the president is considered a nightmare client by lawyers and Law Firms. The New York Daily News named four law firms that have turned down Trump because of concerns that the president will not listen to their counsel.
Yahoo News identified the lawyers who have turned down Trump as a client, as Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell, Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly, Robert Giufra of Sullivan & Cromwell, and Ted Olso of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Other than the president not listening to the counsel, some of the lawyers cited his tweeting habit as another reason why they are hesitant to accept the real estate billionaire as a client.
The client from hell
Trump is finding it difficult to brush off his reputation as a client from hell, according to lawyers who indicated that he will not pay and will not listen. Other lawyers, such as Brendan Sullivan, cited having existing commitments and upcoming trials as the reason why they could not accept Trump as a client. Another pointed to a potential conflict of interest because their clients, which are financial institutions, have subpoenas for potential money-laundering cases and are part of the Russian probe.
According to Yahoo News, after FBI Director James Comey was fired by Trump and the designation of Robert Mueller as special counsel, the White House began to put together an outside legal team. It named those who called the law firms as Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser, and Don McGahn, White House counsel.
Some of the lawyers approached had meetings or phone calls with Trump. There were more than four law firms approached by the White House. Two more lawyers were named by Yahoo News. These are Reid Weingarten of Steptoe & Johnson and A.B. Culvahouse Jr. of O’Melveny & Myers.
Twitter habits of Trump
Mashable cited the Twitter habits of Trump as the reason why law firms consider the real estate mogul to be a nightmare client.
By tweeting on Monday that he insists on banning Muslims from entering the U.S. as immigrants, he called it a travel ban which undermined the White House position. It proved that he based his executive action on his personal bias against followers of the Islam faith.
Lawyers fear that the president will act in the same way if they accept him as a client in the Russian investigation. In the end, the White House decided to bring in Marc Kasowitz, a longtime personal lawyer of Trump, to be the lead outside counsel for the Russian investigation. It was Kosowitz who handled his divorce proceedings, fraud cases for Trump University, and several real estate transactions.
