“Let’s Kill All The Lawyers” - William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2

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I was a lawyer for five decades, spending the last years of my career as a BigLaw partner in Rockefeller Center. To me, Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on major law firms, particularly those that oppose him or represent adversaries in litigation, evoke an unsettling echo from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2. In Act IV, Scene II, the character Dick the Butcher, a follower of the rebel Jack Cade, famously declares: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” On the surface, the line is often quoted as a punchline, a cynical jab at the legal profession. But in its context, the meaning is far more ominous: it is a revolutionary’s call to dismantle the rule of law in order to pave the way for tyranny.

Jack Cade’s movement was a populist uprising, promising to level the social order and destroy existing institutions. Lawyers, as defenders of legal order and the rule of law, stood as obstacles to Cade’s despotic ambitions. Shakespeare understood that any movement seeking to upend a lawful society must first silence those most committed to the protection of legal norms.

Trump, in his own populist crusade, is not literally calling for the killing of lawyers—but his relentless attacks on the legal profession bear a chilling resemblance in spirit. When major firms or their attorneys participate in lawsuits against him, or represent governmental institutions enforcing legal accountability, Trump often retaliates publicly. He names them, shames them, accuses them of partisanship, seeks to undermine their credibility, and signs executive orders attacking them. His threats against lawyers involved in prosecuting or opposing him, or even judges overseeing his cases, are not merely rhetorical excesses—they are part of a larger campaign to delegitimize legal constraints on his conduct.

This tactic mirrors the authoritarian impulse embedded in Cade’s rebellion. Trump, like Cade, thrives on the image of himself as a victim of corrupt elites, among whom lawyers feature prominently. But what Trump seeks is not legal fairness—it is impunity. The lawyers who oppose him, whether representing agencies, congressional committees, or civil plaintiffs, are fulfilling their roles as officers of the court and upholders of legal norms. In attacking them, Trump is attempting to delegitimize the very machinery of legal accountability.

His disdain for the legal profession is not new. During his first presidency, he derided government lawyers, the FBI’s legal counsel, and attorneys in the intelligence community. He repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of judges, famously calling a federal judge “a Mexican” and criticizing court rulings against his administration. But the escalation of his rhetoric against lawyers and judges has reached new levels of dangerous demagoguery.

Shakespeare’s insight, dramatized through Dick the Butcher’s infamous line, is that tyranny requires the removal of those who enforce justice. Trump’s war on lawyers is not just a personal vendetta—it is a political strategy. By discrediting those who apply the law, he aims to make himself immune from it. That should alarm anyone who values the rule of law. Just as in Henry VI, when the lawyers fall, so too does the republic.