Even beyond that, Trump's known for not paying his staff unless he's forced to, so some of attorneys literally got paid in exposure. The prospect of not being paid makes him an even more risky client to take on, and I wouldn't be completely shocked if at this point he ended up with a public defender.

100% agreed with everything there, except for the last paragraph, because it’s a question I've asked lawyers before (about representing a clearly losing case). What I was told is that a lawyer’s job (unless they’re paid on commission like personal injury lawyers) is not to win the case, but to accurately represent the case so the whole system works as fairly as it can. Basically, it’s to make sure that people don’t get a punishment because “the king decided so” without the actual situation being looked at, as used to be the case. So, when you represent a pure scum bag who clearly eats babies, it’s fine, because when they get locked up, you did your part in making sure they get there because they did what they did and for no other subjective reason.

Obviously “representing accurately and fairly” doesn’t work when Trump intentionally misleads his lawyers and puts them in legal hot water, which is the point you make higher and which I wholly agree with. Why would a lawyer want that kind of risk for themselves?