Trump targets Big Law. Why that matters to the rest of us.

As it began fighting for its life in federal court last week, the law firm WilmerHale turned to the story that most budding lawyers hear before anything else.

It’s 1770, and a group of British soldiers is on trial after killing five colonists in the Boston Massacre. John Adams, a prominent voice for independence, has chosen to defend them. Despite widespread criticism at the time, America’s second president later described it as “one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”