Obama Criticizes Top Law Firms and Universities for Yielding to Trump Administration Pressure

At a closed-door fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday, former President Barack Obama expressed deep disappointment with some of the nation’s most powerful law firms and universities, accusing them of compromising their principles in the face of pressure from the Trump administration.

Speaking to a room of Democratic donors and supporters, Obama singled out elite legal institutions for, in his words, “setting aside the law” in pursuit of profit and professional comfort. He suggested that many in the legal profession chose personal convenience over constitutional responsibility during key moments under Trump’s presidency.

“These lawyers weren’t afraid of jail,” Obama said, according to sources familiar with the event. “They were afraid of losing clients. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to finish that kitchen remodel out in the Hamptons. That’s not courage—it’s cowardice.”

Obama’s critique comes amid growing concerns over how institutions—both public and private—respond to political power when their values are tested. The former president’s comments particularly struck a nerve with those in the legal world, where many have long regarded Obama as a peer. He is, after all, a graduate of Harvard Law School and spent time as a summer associate at Sidley & Austin before entering public service. He later worked as a civil rights attorney at a small Chicago firm before entering politics.

Since early this year, the Trump administration has issued a series of executive orders aimed at major law firms. The orders accuse these firms of misusing the legal system to undermine the administration and revoke their federal security clearances. Additionally, the orders trigger reviews of existing government contracts with firms such as Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, and Covington & Burling.

While some firms pushed back—WilmerHale and Perkins Coie have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the orders—others chose to cooperate. Firms such as Paul Weiss and Kirkland & Ellis reportedly agreed to provide pro bono legal assistance to conservative-aligned causes in a bid to protect their access to government work.

Obama did not hold back in calling out what he saw as compromises made for the sake of maintaining prestige and wealth.

“You don’t bend the law to keep your firm in the news or your client list full,” he said. “That’s not the legal tradition I came up in.”

He also turned his focus to higher education, voicing disappointment in universities that, in his view, yielded too quickly to political threats. One example he cited was Columbia University—his alma mater—which reportedly complied with Trump administration directives following the threat of losing federal funds.

The administration had warned Columbia of a potential $400 million cut in funding, citing the university’s alleged failure to adequately address incidents of anti-Semitism during campus protests related to the conflict in Gaza.

Without naming specific officials, Obama criticized institutions that prioritized funding over academic independence. “If your mission is education, then you should be willing to take a financial hit to protect academic freedom,” he said. “That’s why endowments exist—for moments like this.”

Obama has grown increasingly vocal about the risks he sees in America’s democratic system under a second Trump presidency. Speaking at a forum in Connecticut earlier this summer, he warned that the country was edging dangerously close to authoritarianism.

“We’re not fully there yet,” he said, “but we’re starting to normalize things that should never be normalized in a democracy.”

In related political developments, former President Joe Biden defended his administration’s controversial use of an autopen in signing his final clemency orders before leaving office. In an interview with The New York Times, Biden explained that while he made the overall policy decisions regarding pardons and sentence commutations, he did not review every individual case personally.

The autopen was used to affix his signature to a sweeping round of clemency actions—more than 1,500 individuals received pardons or commutations in the final days of his term, marking one of the largest acts of presidential clemency in modern U.S. history.

“I decided on the criteria,” Biden told the paper. “We had a process. It wasn’t random. But we weren’t going to run every name back and forth across my desk.”

The use of the autopen drew criticism from Republican lawmakers who accused the administration of bypassing proper oversight and personal accountability in a matter as serious as presidential pardons.

Nevertheless, the Biden team defended the practice as necessary given the volume of paperwork and the limited time remaining in office. White House aides noted that the clemency decisions were reviewed by career professionals and followed a rigorous internal process.

As political pressure intensifies ahead of the 2024 election cycle, the actions—and inactions—of American institutions under Trump are once again under the microscope. For Obama, the issue is about more than just policy. It’s about principle.

“When power tests your values,” he said, “that’s when your values matter most.