Trump Reaches Deals With 5 Law Firms, Allowing Them To Avoid Prospect Of Punishing Executive Orders

President Donald Trump announced deals Friday with five law firms that will allow them to avoid the prospect of a punishing executive order and require them to together provide hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of free legal services for causes his administration supports.

The resolutions reflect the Republican president's continued success in bending prominent law firms to his will as they seek to cut deals with his administration to avoid being targeted by White House sanctions.

The latest firms to reach agreements with the White House are Cadwalader, Wickersham Kirkland Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US Simpson Thacher Bartlett and Latham Watkins.

The spate of executive orders directed at the legal community and top law firms over the last two months has been part of a broader effort by Trump to reshape civil society and to extract concessions from entities whose work he opposes. The orders have threatened to upend the day-to-day business of the firms by stripping their lawyers' security clearances, barring their employees from access to federal buildings and terminating federal contracts held by the firms or their clients.

Since Trump levied the first of his orders, several major law firms - including WilmerHale , Perkins Coie and Jenner Block - have won court rulings that have temporarily halted enforcement of most of the provisions. But other firms have sought to avert punishment by striking a deal with the White House.