OLYMPIA, WA – Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown last month filed an amicus brief in support of Perkins Coie, a private law firm that filed a lawsuit in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders seeking to end federal contracts with the firm and revoke its security clearance.

Although The Center Square reported that the AGO had recently subcontracted with Perkins Coie, it has now obtained documents showing that the contract with the law firm was renewed and set to expire later this year, which was not disclosed in the amicus brief.

In response, a complaint has been filed with both state and federal agencies alleging ethical and legal violations by the attorney general’s office.

The Washington AGO’s amicus brief, signed by 20 other state attorneys general, was filed the day after Perkins Coie’s lawsuit and states that the private law firm “has represented clients in filing lawsuits against some of the Amici States, including challenges to the validity of State laws and the interpretation of State constitutional provisions. But while our positions in litigation may differ, the states, the courts, and the public all benefit when all sides to a dispute are effectively represented.”

The brief also notes that “Perkins Coie has filed lawsuits against Washington, one of the Amici States here, including challenges to the validity of our state laws.”

Brown and 20 other attorneys general later signed a March 26 letter that states “through his orders, the President hopes to pit attorneys general against law firms based on the colleagues they keep, the clients they take, the cases they argue, and the values they hold. Let us speak plainly: we refuse.”

Through the contract between the Washington AGO and Perkins Coie, first signed in 2020, the private law firm acts as a Special Assistant Attorney General to provide legal services for Washington State University, where the AGO has an entire division dedicated to representing the university. The contract states that Perkins Coie would provide “high quality legal services … subject to the authority of the WA-AGO.”

According to one invoice obtained by The Center Square, Perkins Coie billed the Washington AGO $21,204 for legal services between Nov. 27, 2023 and Dec. 27, 2023. The contract was set to expire in 2023 but was renewed in 2024 and expires in September 2025.

Although the amicus brief states that “when a government’s positions are challenged in court, the best response is a vigorous legal defense – not to attack or punish the law firms willing to mount the challenge,” the AGO’s contract requires Perkins Coie to notify it whenever the private firm intends to represent a client in matters “adverse to the State of Washington.”

Additionally, the contract stipulates that the AGO may terminate the contract “at its sole discretion” by giving a 15-day written notice of its intent to do so.

Perkins Coie is also prohibited from speaking to the media, on or off the record, regarding the contract or work done under it “unless prior express written approval is secured from the AGO.”

An ethical and legal complaint filed against the Washington AGO and obtained by The Center Square argued that “by filing an Amicus brief in support of Perkins Coie, the WA-AGO was effectively submitting an Amicus brief in support of one of its own attorneys. This conflict was never disclosed to the court or to the defense. It is unprecedented for a state attorney general to file an amicus brief in support of a private law firm that is in a contract dispute with the federal government.”

The complaint also alleges that the AGO “actively deceived the court to obtain an advantage for its Special Assistant Attorney General Perkins Coie.”

According to the complaint, between January 2017 and November 2020, the Washington AGO filed 96 amicus briefs against the federal government, 14 of which were authored by the AGO, while the other 82 were written by other state attorneys general.

The Washington AGO did not respond to a request for comment regarding its contract with Perkins Coie or the complaint, which was filed with its Civil Rights Division and Antitrust Division. The Center Square also reached out to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office of District of Columbia for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Source: TJ Martinell, The Center Square, “Complaint Alleges WA AGO ‘Actively Deceived’ Court About Contract With Perkins Coie,” April 1, 2025.