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57 Texas Law Students Sign Amicus Brief for Susman Godfrey

April 29, 2025 Mark Curriden

The amicus briefs in the case of Susman Godfrey v. Executive Office of the President continue to stack up. 

On Tuesday, 1,129 law students and 51 law school student organizations filed a brief claiming that President Donald Trump’s April 9 executive order against Susman Godfrey “will cause enduring damage to the legal profession and amici as America’s future lawyers.”

Fifty-seven law students from all 10 of the law schools in Texas signed the amicus brief. Three Texas law student groups — the University of Houston Law Center’s Student Bar Association, U of H’s National Mock Trial Team and the University of Texas School of Law’s Student Plaintiffs Advocacy and Litigation Society — also joined the brief.

The amici state that they are a diverse group of law students from public and private law schools across the country.

“Yet amici are united in one fundamental respect,” the brief states. “They have dedicated themselves to the idea that we are a society governed by laws, not by raw power. They recognize that the executive order attacks their chosen profession. It attacks the values that cause law practice to be meaningful in American life. Amici ask this Court to protect the legal profession they are preparing to join and the core values that the profession serves.”

RELATED: Susman Godfrey EO Litigation Timeline

Nineteen of those signing the amicus brief are students at the University of Houston, 17 are at UT in Austin, eight are students at Texas A&M School of Law, and three attend South Texas College of Law Houston. Baylor Law School, the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law and Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law each have two students on the list. St. Mary’s School of Law and Texas Tech School of Law each have one student listed among the amici.

The students are asking U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of Washington, D.C., to grant summary judgment in favor of Houston-based Susman Godfrey in its lawsuit against the Trump administration. 

The students argue in the brief that the president’s executive order “will reduce the opportunities that law practice provides.”

“Unless enjoined by the Court, the orders will cause enduring damage to the legal profession and amici as America’s future lawyers,” the brief states. “Our society has functioned for centuries on the understanding that lawyers are free and even encouraged to take up disfavored representations, that every person deserves due process and their day in court. For just as long, young people have been called to the law to renew that promise and to participate in America’s legal institutions. Like so many before them, amici have expended considerable money, time, and effort to join the legal profession.”

In his executive order, President Trump accuses Susman Godfrey of “egregious conduct and conflicts of interest” and representing “clients that engage in conduct undermining critical American interests and priorities.” The order by the president suspends “security clearances held by individuals at Susman Godfrey pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

“Susman spearheads efforts to weaponize the American legal system and degrade the quality of American elections,” the executive order states.

The list of Texas law students include:

Baylor Law School
Bonnie Worstell 
Kenadie Wilde 

South Texas College of Law Houston
Ashley Fortner
Clayton Rainey
Rene Schwartz

Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
Izabella Gutierrez-Salinas 
Katie McNamara

St. Mary’s University School of Law
Lauren Porfirio

Texas A&M University School of Law
Audrey Moore 
Brooklynn Petty
Evan Schoop 
Ian C. Stephens 
J.C. Freeman 
Simon Lee 
Sydney Nwuli 
Whitney Taylor 

Texas Tech University School of Law
Areesha Hemani 

Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Jadyn Steave
Tia Allen

University of Houston Law Center
Alexis Roberts 
Alicia Davila
Alyssa Galvan 
Anne Marie Therese Eamiguel 
Anthony Lane
Cailley Vaughan 
Caitlyn Foret 
Duncan S. Reedyk 
Emily Pickerign 
Gunnar Osteen 
Jake McCreless 
Katherine Brooks 
Landon Adams 
Mason Dowless 
Mauro Vásquez IV 
Natalie Cha 
Paige Chovanec 
Tralessia Myers 
Abigail Mathew 

University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law
Hamilton Hayers 
Julia Santos

University of Texas School of Law
Ali Hamza 
Blaine Campbell 
Brennan Caruthers 
Cate Byrne 
Chad Youmans 
Christopher Jordan 
Emma Hoffman 
Jack O’Neil 
Jack Reboul 
Joseph Kudler 
Kelly Hogan 
Madeline Love 
Maxwell Wilder Martucci 
Nickoli Benkert 
Will Bonds 
Meera Sam 
Sri Senthilkumar

The case is Susman Godfrey v. The Executive Office of the President. U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C. Case No. 1:25—cv—01107.

Mark Curriden

Mark Curriden is a lawyer/journalist and founder of The Texas Lawbook. In addition, he is a contributing legal correspondent for The Dallas Morning News.

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