{"id":2009567,"date":"2023-08-23T15:50:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-23T19:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/major-law-firms-sued-for-discriminatory-dei-programs-amid-affirmative-action-reckoning\/"},"modified":"2023-08-23T15:53:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T19:53:57","slug":"major-law-firms-sued-for-discriminatory-dei-programs-amid-affirmative-action-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/major-law-firms-sued-for-discriminatory-dei-programs-amid-affirmative-action-reckoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Law firms face lawsuits over &#8216;discriminatory&#8217; DEI programs amidst affirmative action scrutiny."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmajor-law-firms-sued-for-discriminatory-dei-programs-amid-affirmative-action-reckoning%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2009567&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>American Alliance for Equal Rights\u200c Challenges Law Firms&#8217; Diversity Fellowships<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A group founded by the conservative activist who led the successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to \u200dthe consideration of race in college admissions sued two major\u200d U.S. law firms over \u200cfellowships they \u200coffer to promote diversity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The American Alliance for Equal Rights sued Perkins\u2064 Coie in Dallas and Morrison &#038; Foerster in Miami two months after the Supreme Court sided with another group\u2064 founded by activist Edward Blum and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/major-law-firms-sued-for-discriminatory-dei-programs-amid-affirmative-action-reckoning\/\" title=\"Law firms face lawsuits over 'discriminatory' DEI programs amidst affirmative action scrutiny.\">rejected affirmative action policies<\/a>\u2063 used\u200b by many colleges to increase enrollment of racial \u2064minorities.<\/p>\n<p>The federal lawsuits accused both law firms of unlawfully discriminating against\u2062 white candidates by limiting which law students could be considered for paid fellowships designed in part to help support the recruitment of people of color.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Excluding students from \u200dthese esteemed fellowships because they are the wrong\u2064 race is unfair,\u200b polarizing and illegal,&#8221;<\/strong> Blum, who is white,\u2063 said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuits suggest a reckoning \u2064may be on the way for firms that pursue discriminatory\u200d policies in the wake of the\u200c Supreme Court&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-business-is-the-new-diversity-battleground-after-supreme-court-ruling-on-colleges\/\" title=\"Supreme Court ruling sparks diversity battle in big business.\">affirmative action\u200d ruling<\/a>. The <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/starbucks-hired-eric-holder-to-conduct-a-civil-rights-audit-the-policies-he-blessed-got-the-coffee-maker-sued\/\">reported<\/a> last month that discriminatory fellowships and programs, which companies often establish on the basis of elite law firms&#8217; &#8220;civil rights&#8221; advice, are now \u2063prime\u2062 targets for legal scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>These programs &#8220;are lawsuits waiting\u2064 to happen,&#8221;\u2063 Noah Peters, the former solicitor of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Law schools are also gearing up for a fight over \u200btheir policies to boost\u2064 diversity. Top law school administrators from the University of California Berkeley\u2064 and the University of Michigan last \u200cmonth <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/law-school-administrators-huddle-to-circumvent-affirmative-action-ban\/\">huddled<\/a> to discuss how to protect those programs from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ketanji-brown-jackson-clashes-with-anti-affirmative-action-lawyer-during-oral-arguments\/\" title=\"Ketanji Brown Jackson Clashes With Anti-Affirmative Action Lawyer During Oral Arguments\">affirmative action law<\/a>. They suggested schools \u2064take steps to\u2063 avoid creating a \u2062&#8221;record&#8221; of \u200c&#8221;discriminatory intent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In an apparent effort to determine applicants&#8217; race without explicitly asking \u200cthem, Columbia Law School last month \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/columbia-law-school-said-it-would-require-applicants-to-submit-video-statements-in-the-wake-of-affirmative-action-ban-then-it-backtracked\/\">announced<\/a> prospective students must\u200c submit a 90-second &#8220;video statement&#8221; with their application. The law\u2062 school backtracked after the<em> Free Beacon<\/em> reached out for comment, however, saying the rule was a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<p>A Perkins Coie spokesperson in a \u200cstatement said it would defend itself, saying its commitment to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in \u200dthe legal profession was &#8220;steadfast.&#8221; Morrison &#038; Foerster did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2062 lawsuits came amid an uptick in legal challenges to corporate diversity programs since the High Court&#8217;s ruling, with companies including Activision Blizzard, Kellogg and Gannett now\u2062 facing complaints.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins Coie, founded in Seattle, offers &#8220;diversity \u200bfellowships&#8221; that provide stipends of $15,000 to $25,000 and paid positions as summer associates, a position that at major law firms can lead to full-time \u200bjobs with six-figure \u200bsalaries.<\/p>\n<p>Applicants must belong to\u200c &#8220;a group historically \u200bunderrepresented in the legal profession, including students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and students with disabilities,&#8221; according to\u200d Perkins Coie, which employs more than 1,200 lawyers in \u2063the United States and Asia.<\/p>\n<p>Morrison &#038; Foerster, a \u2064corporate\u2064 law firm founded in San Francisco that has more than 1,000 \u200blawyers worldwide, has a similar program that is open to applicants who are Black, Hispanic, Native American or members of the LGBT community.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200c fellowship\u200d consists of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/activist-behind-us-affirmative-action-cases-sues-major-law-firms\/\" title=\"Activist sues top law firms over US affirmative action cases.\">paid summer-associate position<\/a> and a $50,000 stipend.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200dlawsuits allege that by limiting\u200b eligibility based on race, the\u2062 fellowships violate Section\u200c 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a federal law adopted after the end of \u2064slavery brought about by the American Civil War that bars racial bias\u200d in private contracts.<\/p>\n<p>Blum&#8217;s Texas-based American Alliance for Equal Rights this month filed a similar case against Atlanta-based venture capital \u200bfund Fearless Fund, alleging it\u2062 unlawfully\u2062 allowed only Black women to be eligible in a grant competition in violation of the contracting law.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham, Alexia Garamfalvi and\u2064 Alistair Bell)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A conservative activist&#8217;s group, known for winning a Supreme Court challenge against race-based college admissions, has filed lawsuits against two prominent law firms. The American Alliance for Equal Rights sued Perkins Coie in Dallas and Morrison &amp; Foerster in Miami, targeting their diversity-promoting fellowships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2009568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2009567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2009567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2009568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2009567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2009567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2009567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}