Fortune 500 company abruptly fires lawyer who helped immigrant family

Former Fidelity National Financial attorney Clay Jackson ( Courtesy of Clay Jackson)

On March 4, Clay Jackson, an attorney in the Dallas area, was at a gas station near his home when the attendant asked if he would help a local immigrant family. The family's father, who is undocumented, had been targeted in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace raid. His wife is also undocumented, but their youngest child is a U.S. citizen. Jackson agreed.

Later the same day, Jackson visited the family at their home. He is not an immigration lawyer, but advised the parents of their basic rights if they were detained by ICE. He also promised to help the family find an attorney specializing in immigration law to help them pro bono. The entire meeting lasted less than an hour.

On March 6, two plain-clothed officers came to Jackson's home and asked if his name was Clay Jackson. He said yes. Then, one of the officers said, "We have information that you are obstructing an ongoing immigration investigation." The men asked if they could come inside, and Jackson declined. The men refused to tell Jackson their names or provide badge numbers. Jackson shut the door.

All of these facts were first reported by journalist Radley Balko on April 23 in his newsletter The Watch. The same day Balko’s story was published, Jackson was fired from his job as Litigation Counsel at Fidelity National Financial (FNF), a large insurance company and a member of the Fortune 500. In 2024, the company brought in more than $13 billion in revenue selling title insurance, life insurance, annuities, and other financial products. Balko, by Jackson's request, did not mention FNF or the nature of Jackson's legal work in his report.

In an interview with Popular Information, Jackson shared more details about his termination from FNF.

On March 23, Jackson told his boss at FNF that he was planning to speak publicly about the incident. He explained that he was scared for his safety — and the safety of FNF customers — and felt an obligation to speak out. Jackson also said that he would appreciate knowing that FNF would support him. His boss appeared dismissive of Jackson's concerns and refused to agree that all persons, including non-citizens, are entitled to due process under the Constitution. Nevertheless, Jackson's boss said he would get back to Jackson soon about the matter.

A week passed, and Jackson heard nothing. Jackson followed up with his boss via email, saying he was disappointed about the lack of follow-up. Jackson copied a higher-ranking FNF executive on the email.

Jackson received a response from the higher-ranking executive a few days later. The executive suggested that providing assistance to an undocumented immigrant family could constitute professional misconduct and damage the company. The executive also said that Jackson's complaints about his boss's lack of understanding constituted a resignation.

Jackson responded that he was not resigning. The company fired him a few weeks later, hours after Balko's story was published, offering this explanation: "Unsatisfactory performance and violations of company policy." The company did not detail what policies Jackson allegedly violated.

The targeting of Jackson is consistent with a larger effort by the Trump administration to harass and intimidate lawyers who assist undocumented immigrants. In a March 22 executive order, President Trump accused pro bono immigration lawyers of coaching "clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief." The executive order accuses undocumented immigrants of undermining "the integrity of our immigration laws and the legal profession more broadly." The executive order says that the Attorney General should seek sanctions against any lawyer who engages in this behavior.

The administration has also detained attorneys at the U.S.-Mexico border and sought to search their cell phones. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, has repeatedly called for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to be criminally prosecuted for informing immigrants about their legal rights.

Bill Foley, the billionaire founder and chairman of FNF, is a major Republican donor and Trump supporter. Foley has supported each of Trump's presidential runs, donating $500,000 to Trump's umbrella campaign organization in 2020. Notably, Foley publicly broke with Trump following Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, calling him "a narcissistic egomaniac." Foley supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in the 2024 Republican primary. But after Trump won the nomination, Foley donated another $500,000 to Trump's 2024 campaign. Foley, the owner of the NHL's Las Vegas Golden Knights, has donated millions more to the Republican Party and other Republican candidates.

Was Jackson's termination an effort by FNF to avoid an ideological conflict with the Trump administration? FNF did not respond to a request for comment.