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The current government's targeted actions on attorneys it does not like is something people believed "could never happen in the United States," the president of the American Bar Association has stated.

International Concerns and Role Reversal

In conversations during an international gathering on the security and safeguarding of legal professionals, Michelle Behnke mentioned that the ABA was used to providing guidance to organizations in other countries but the tables had turned to an extent.

Since taking office, Donald Trump and his government have placed restrictions on certain attorneys and law firms, including their capacity to advocate for clients, primarily because they have done legal work that the president has objected to or they have been linked to prosecutors who investigated him.

Strategies Used Against Attorneys

Among the methods adopted have been:

• Terminating lawyers' security clearances
• Canceling firms' federal agreements
• Refraining from hiring certain firms' employees for public sector positions
• Limiting lawyers' access to federal buildings

Court Action Initiated by ABA

In response, the ABA filed a lawsuit in June petitioning a federal court to declare unconstitutional the Trump administration's "unlawful policy of coercion against lawyers and law firms."

"The public knows of the presidential directives against law firms to imply that not a single person in a law firm could access any federal building – that would mean that you would not be able to work as an attorney. So that's an assault or a danger against legal practices, and as effective as physical threats."

Behnke continued, "People maybe a year or two ago might have said that could never happen in the United States. [This shows] no place is immune, everywhere has vulnerabilities."

Global Solidarity and Shared Experience

She said the uniqueness of the circumstances was not missed by colleagues from other countries she had met, who had found encouragement from the changing dynamics.

"I've conversed with lawyers from across the globe," Behnke stated. "They have both given support and encouragement, suggested that they believe the ABA is making correct moves in ... bringing suit."

"Frequently we're the one providing assistance and aid of other countries and I think several other countries are realising that they can also return the aid and that actually buoys them and makes them know that their role as attorneys, their law societies, are just as crucial."

Diversity and the Rule of Law

But Behnke is clear on the importance of professional inclusion. "In my view issues around gender equality within the legal field, diversity, equity and inclusion – and I use the full words, as opposed to the letters [DEI], because the acronym have become toxic – are all integral components of the rule of law," she explained.

"If the legal profession reflects the people we serve, the individuals we represent, the societies we inhabit, that's key and that aids public comprehension of the justice system and the value and gives people faith and assurance in the systems."

Unity on Fundamental Principles

She further stated that while "if you gather attorneys in a room, you're going to get 11 different opinions", when it came to the rule of law there was "absolute unanimity" in understanding its significance and the disorder that reigns in its lack.

When asked why lawyers were being targeted in numerous nations, Behnke paraphrased – fittingly, given her location – the words of England's greatest playwright in Henry VI Part 2.

"I think the current era contribute to conflict and law and lawyers are the ones that hold people to account," she said. "Shakespeare [said|wrote] if you want anarchy, first kill all the lawyers. It really was an realization that lawyers are perhaps a barrier to that anarchy and that ability to take over or disrupt the rule of law. So I'm not particularly shocked that we are a bit of a target."