Missive by Alan Garten, the Trump Organisation’s general counsel, is an internet hit
The social media trend to celebrate lawyers’ cease & desist letters — which Legal Cheek wholeheartedly supports (see here, here and here) — has yielded another gem.
Step forward Alan Garten, former corporate lawyer at global firm Bryan Cave and, for the last eight years, general counsel of the Trump Organisation.
These are interesting times for Garten, as he seeks to support his boss Donald’s quest to transition from tycoon to — please God, no! — the President of the US of A.
Part of that role is to keep Trump’s new enemies at bay. Hence the cease & desist letter Garten (whose LinkedIn profile can be viewed below) penned yesterday and sent to conservative group Monday to the Club For Growth to stop it running a political attack ad against Trump. ( Yes, there are forces in US politics even more reactionary than Trump.)
Garten’s missive — which contains all the ferociousness you’d expect from the legal advisor to the, er, colourful billionaire — has been described as “amazing” by the Washington Post, which has reproduced a version in annotated form. Top US legal blog Above the Law, meanwhile, fetes it as “a distillation of Trump, mixing boilerplate legalese with childish contempt”.
Enjoy the letter in full below…