Covington & Burling LLP was the firm that assisted Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith was appointed special counsel for the investigation into Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building as well as Trump's mishandling of government records. 

Since this memorandum, Trump has tried to impose similar sanctions on other law firms including Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Paul, Weiss.

In the letter signed by Sant'Ambrogio, the deans wrote that they sought to "reaffirm basic principles."

"The government should not punish lawyers and law firms for the clients they represent, absent specific findings that such representation was illegal or unethical," the letter reads. "Punishing lawyers for their representation and advocacy violates the First Amendment and undermines the Sixth Amendment."

"We thus speak as legal educators, responsible for training the next generation of lawyers, in condemning any government efforts to punish lawyers or their firms based on the identity of their clients or for their zealous lawful and ethical advocacy," it continued. 

The end of the letter clarifies that its signatories are expressing their personal views, not those of the institutions they work for. 

That detail aligns with MSU's practice of "institutional restraint," which means that while the university may have opinions on current events, it will refrain from sharing them. However, the guidance does allow faculty and staff to make personal statements about issues, though it cautions against anything that appears to represent the opinion of MSU or a unit of the university, Guskiewicz told The State News in December. 

MSU College of Law Senior Direction of Communications Aaryn Richard wrote in an email to The State News that, at this time, "there is nothing further to add to the comments published in the letter."

Sant’Ambrogio was not available for comment at the time of publication. 

Upon reading the letter and learning that Sant’Ambrogio had signed it, Alexander Doyle, a second-year student in the College of Law and president of the MSU Student Bar Association, said he felt proud and hopes that the college remains vigilant in protecting the role of lawyers and the Constitution itself. 

"We're future lawyers and we are being taught that legal representation right now is, importantly, not an endorsement of clients actions, but an essential function of the justice system itself," Doyle said. "The ability of lawyers to represent their clients without the government intimidating them or trying to interfere with them is a hallmark of our legal system, and it's what makes our legal system just."

"Any attempt to sanction lawyers for fulfilling their duty is an attack on the integrity of the profession and the constitutional principles that we're supposed to be bound to," he added. 

The coalition of 80 deans is among other law groups who have condemned the government's recent actions. 

Also on March 26, the American Bar Association released a "statement in support of the rule of law," criticizing the government's efforts to "interfere with fair and impartial courts, the right to counsel and due process, and the freedoms of speech and association in our country." The letter was signed by 91 bar organizations from across the nation, including the Detroit Bar Association and Foundation and the Michigan chapter of the National Arab American Bar Association.