Former President Donald Trump turned to Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough for legal advice on his plans to start a social media company to fight Big Tech.
John Haley, corporate finance and securities partner at Nelson Mullins in Miami, is representing Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) in its proposed merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company that raised $283 million through an initial public offering in September.
Two sources with knowledge of the deal, that Trump announced on Wednesdayconfirmed the role of Haley to Bloomberg Law.
A spokeswoman for Nelson Mullins said the law firm has a policy of not commenting on client cases. Haley did not respond to a request for comment.
Nelson Mullins’ move to represent TMTG comes after several major law firms, such as Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Seyfarth Shaw, severed ties or walked away from Trump following the Jan. 6 uprising on Capitol Hill.
Other firms like Barnes & Thornburg and Foley & Lardner have parted ways with partners involved in promoting debunked voter fraud claims.
Nelson Mullins brought in more than $577 million in gross earnings last year, according to data reported to The American Lawyer. It was among the 70 largest law firms in the nation by this measure.
Haley joined Nelson Mullins’ predecessor Broad and Cassel – a Florida-based company she absorbed in 2018 – in 2014 after spending three years as a partner at DLA Piper in Miami. He was previously a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth and a partner at Greenberg Traurig, Clifford Chance and Sidley Austin, where he worked in Miami, New York and London.
Nelson Mullins has a history with Trump. Miami-based attorney Jon Sale, a former Watergate special prosecutor who co-chairs the firm’s white-collar and governmental investigations practice, was briefly part of Trump’s impeachment defense team because of his contacts in Ukraine. Sale represented Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, is his responnse to a congressional subpoena.
Harold “Trey” Gowdy III, former partner of Nelson Mullins and former federal prosecutor who spent nearly a decade as a Republican congressman from South Carolina, also worked for Trump during his first impeachment hearing. Trump was acquitted a second time in February. This proceeding saw Trump initially retain South Carolina attorney Karl “Butch” Bowers Jr., another former partner of Nelson Mullinsbefore the president abandoned Bowers in favor of another legal team on the eve of trial.
In July, Trump sued Google, Facebook Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Twitter Inc. over their decisions to exclude him from their social media and technology platforms following the events of January 6. Twitter, Facebook, and Google later retained Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Kirkland & Ellis, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, respectively, to defend in the litigation.
Public mark deposits by Truth Social, the social network that TMTG says will emerge from its union with DWAC this week, shows that the company shares an address in Fort Lauderdale with the Bradford Cohen’s legal practicea criminal defense attorney and former competitor on the Trump-hosted reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.” Cohen did not respond to a request for comment on Truth Social.
Registration-related securities filings for DWAC, made public last month, show that his listing generated $225,000 in legal fees and expenses for outside attorney Ellenoff Grossman & Schole, a boutique known for its expertise in setting up SPACs. Founder Douglas Ellenoff confirmed to Bloomberg Law via email that his firm represents DWAC. He declined to comment further.
Loeb & Loeb Vice President Mitchell Nussbaum, who co-chairs the firm’s capital markets practice and corporate department, and corporate and securities partner David Levine advised underwriters on SPAC registration through DWAC. Neither responded to requests for comment.
—Roy Strom contributed to this report.
