White & Case Law Firm Distances Itself From Second Anti-Israel Event in a Week

The White & Case law firm is for the second time this week distancing itself from an event it sponsored that portrays Israel as an “apartheid” nation and features a speaker who is at the forefront of the campaign to economically boycott the Jewish state.

White & Case—which helped defend financial giant Morningstar against accusations that it is enabling Israel boycotts—is listed as a sponsor of the International Law Association’s annual U.S. conference, which began Thursday and runs through the weekend. On Saturday, the conference will host a panel discussion, titled “Racism and the Crime of Apartheid in International Law,” featuring speaker Omar Shakir, a longtime Israel critic who says the only Jewish nation is trying to “maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians.” Shakir works for the nonprofit Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is known as a leader in the anti-Israel advocacy world.

White & Case, in comments to the Washington Free Beacon, acknowledged its funding for the law association but condemned the event, saying it was not consulted on the content of the seminars. On Tuesday, White & Case distanced itself from a separate University of Chicago Law School event titled “Apartheid: International Law in the Israel-Palestine Context.” That event also featured Shakir.

The law firm’s sponsorship for these events is generating scrutiny in the pro-Israel advocacy world, given White & Case’s role in a controversy surrounding Morningstar’s support for the BDS movement. The financial giant, which guides investors through its corporate ratings system, retained White & Case to investigate accusations that its products discriminate against Israel. White & Case determined that Morningstar engaged in limited but correctable instances of bias against Israel, and Morningstar has relied on the report to defend itself against claims that it actively supports the BDS movement.

A White & Case spokesman on Thursday told the Free Beacon that it has nothing to do with the content of the International Law Association’s annual American conference. The law firm issued a similar statement when questioned about the University of Chicago Law School event held earlier in the week.

“We are not involved in or consulted on the programming decisions this organization makes for this event, but we expect the viewpoints presented at any event we support to be within a range that is non-extremist and overall balanced,” the spokesman said. “We believe the panel being presented this Saturday titled ‘Racism and the Crime of Apartheid in