PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Attorneys are trying to keep up with the deluge of executive orders coming from the White House affecting all areas of law. Legal workers are overloaded.
“Sometimes I feel like I am drinking from a firehose,” said Kathy Jaffari, an attorney at Philadelphia law firm Cozen O’Connor and chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.
Dozens of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump have affected criminal and civil courts and the corporate world, says Jaffari, and with the density and the number of orders, it takes time and effort to understand them.
“It really is difficult to kind of determine which rules are in place. And then we have to determine which rules are being stayed, which rules actually apply, which rules do not apply,” Jaffari said.
“But what is happening then, there are instructions being given to, for example, administrative agencies, on how to act to implement those executive orders.”
The orders signed are affecting all areas of law. Lawsuits arguing legality are being filed, and judges are ruling, every day. Attorneys have to navigate the orders, keep up with challenges made in court, and the resulting rulings, and then decipher the rules for clients.
“There could be an executive order out there. It could be challenged somewhere in the United States. A judge could have action on that executive order, like a stay—which simply means the executive order will not be implemented at this time. And then we have to determine—for example, me, in Philadelphia, well: Does that apply to my clients right now? Does the stay apply? Does the executive order apply?”
Jaffari says a number of individual orders are unclear, adding to the difficulty agencies are having in applying them.
“The significant amount of uncertainty is what is difficult to navigate,” she said.
“Even as a corporate lawyer, I am seeing changes that the SEC is putting out and trying to decipher those to help my corporate clients and try to understand what applies to them.”
She says the bar association is trying to help attorneys keep up and understand how rulings or orders may affect their legal field.