Mayer Brown will no longer represent Hong Kong University, the U.S. law firm announced on Friday, in seeking the removal of a statue memorializing the Tiananmen Square massacre.

       The move comes after a controversy about the statue, which commemorates the mass killing of protesters in Beijing that had stood at Hong Kong’s oldest university for 24 years. The artwork, known as the “Pillar of Shame,” has faced removal as officials clamped down on any acknowledgment of the 1989 crackdown in the city, just as they have in mainland China.

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       “Going forward, Mayer Brown will not be representing its long-time client in this matter. We have no further comment,” the firm said in a statement.

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       Mayer Brown, a Chicago-founded global law firm that has done work on police accountability and other civil rights issues in the United States, was contracted by the university for work toward the statue’s removal, placing the firm at the center of a heated geopolitical dispute over the future of Hong Kong.

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       Last week, more than two dozen nonprofit groups had urged Mayer Brown to stop representing the university.

       “We therefore expect Mayer Brown law firm to safeguard their reputation and their integrity in defending the right of freedom of expression by rescinding their agreement with the University of Hong Kong,” the groups said in an open letter.

       The law firm had also faced pressure from U.S. lawmakers.

       “It is even worse American law firms are doing the bidding of the Communist Party to erase the memory of the brave, young Chinese students who gave their lives for freedom in Tiananmen Square,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).

       Ellen Nakashima and Shibani Mahtani contributed to this report.