{"id":2025491,"date":"2023-09-08T05:47:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-challenge-big-laws-left-wing-tilt\/"},"modified":"2023-09-08T05:52:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T09:52:38","slug":"conservatives-challenge-big-laws-left-wing-tilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-challenge-big-laws-left-wing-tilt\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives question Big Law&#8217;s left-leaning bias."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/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%2Fconservatives-challenge-big-laws-left-wing-tilt%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=2025491&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--><h2>Liberal\u2063 Bias in Big Law: A Distortion of Justice?<\/h2>\n<p>Academia. The news \u2063media. The entertainment industry. Conservatives have \u2064long \u200blamented the left-wing\u200d dominance of \u2064these \u200bsocietal behemoths. Now there&#8217;s a new liberal bias concern: Big Law.<\/p>\n<p>The nation&#8217;s largest and most profitable law firms \u2014 the Am Law 100 per Law.com \u200cCompass and the American Lawyer \u2014 routinely \u200ctake the liberal side in litigation before \u200cthe Supreme Court and lower courts, \u200dcritics contend. They also\u2064 force out lawyers who want to represent, say, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americans-remember-the-48th-annual-march-for-life\/\" title=\"Americans remember the 48th annual March for Life\">anti-abortion activists<\/a> or gun rights\u200c enthusiasts.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;We seem to have migrated\u2062 from, &#8216;Of\u200b course, lawyers represent unpopular clients,&#8217; to, &#8216;Of course, big law\u200d firms aren&#8217;t going\u200c to represent certain unpopular clients,'&#8221; leading \u2063Supreme Court litigator\u2063 Paul \u200bClement said at a May 12 \u200bRepublican National Lawyers Association conference, \u200bin Washington, D.C. &#8220;The representations that are coming out of \u200bthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-ags-tell-nations-top-law-firms-to-stop-racial-preference-hiring-or-face-accountability\/\" title=\"Republican AGs warn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-different-kind-of-gun-grabbing\/\" title=\"A Different Kind of Gun-Grabbing\">top law firms<\/a>: End racial preference hiring or face consequences.&#8221;>biggest law firms<\/a>\u200b seem to be\u2064 skewed in one direction in particular.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Clement, solicitor general\u200d in former President George W. Bush&#8217;s\u2062 administration from \u200d2005-08, cited supporting documents filed \u2064by Big Law firms with the \u200bSupreme Court \u200cahead\u2063 of its June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women&#8217;s Health Organization ruling, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and made abortion a matter for states \u200bto decide. Along with rulings against Harvard University and the \u2062University \u2063of North\u2062 Carolina, it effectively eliminated the use of affirmative action in college admissions.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;If you look \u2064at the amicus briefs that were filed in\u200b the Dobbs case last term or the affirmative action cases this \u200bterm, it&#8217;s a clean sweep. They&#8217;re on the\u2063 liberal side of the case. There are multiple, multiple law firms \u2014 the largest law firms are represented,&#8221; Clement said.\u200b &#8220;On the other side of the case, there are no Am Law 100 law firms\u200c represented.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And \u200bthat\u2062 can \u2063lead to a distortion\u2062 of justice, Clement \u2063added.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It starts to communicate the view, implicitly, that there&#8217;s only one right answer in these controversies,&#8221; he\u2064 said. &#8220;There&#8217;s only one respectable side of these disputes that are\u200c going all the way to the\u200c Supreme Court.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Fighting\u200b a Liberal Legal Establishment<\/h3>\n<p>For some conservatives, liberal bias in Big Law \u200cis\u200d part of \u200da broader problem. More than 70% of political federal donations \u2062from \u200ccollege professors and administrators since\u2064 2002 have gone to Democratic candidates, according to \u200cOpenSecrets, a group that tracks money in U.S. \u2063politics. Democratic office-seekers receive the vast\u2063 majority\u200b of campaign donations \u200dto presidential and\u200d congressional candidates given by \u200bthe top Hollywood executives\u200c and entertainers.<\/p>\n<p>And while there&#8217;s little to be done\u2064 about the increasingly liberal clientele of Big Law \u2014 after all, firms can&#8217;t be compelled to take on conservative-leaning clients or file amicus briefs on behalf \u200dof Republican causes \u2014 the\u2064 industry \u2064does have a distinct legal vulnerability. That\u2063 is law firm efforts to skew the selection process for summer associates, \u2063and then\u2062 lawyers, once they graduate\u2062 and pass the bar\u200c exam, in \u2063a way opponents say\u2062 amounts to reverse discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>Montana Attorney \u2063General Austin Knudsen led five Republican \u2063state\u2062 attorneys general during\u2063 the last week of August by writing to several \u200btop law firms, warning them to cease any programs\u200d that hire, retain, or \u2064promote people \u200bon \u200dthe basis of race.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;My \u200dgut is that a few of these\u200d organizations are probably going to have to get sued,&#8221; Knudsen told the Washington Examiner. Knudsen, a former state House speaker elected Montana&#8217;s attorney\u2064 general in 2020,\u2064 noted he &#8220;hoped&#8221;\u200d litigation wouldn&#8217;t be necessary. But he said he believes some firms will ignore the warning shots from lawmakers and conservative legal advocates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re going to continue to feel \u200bsmug\u2064 about their racism because that&#8217;s\u200d exactly what this is,&#8221; Knudsen said.\u200b &#8220;You don&#8217;t fix \u2063racism by using racism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Law firm recruitment \u200bpolicies have drawn \u200cnotice on Capitol Hill. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in\u200b mid-July sent letters to 51 law firms \u2062using diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, or DEI. Cotton, a \u20622002 Harvard Law School\u2064 graduate who worked in law firms before joining the Army, said they and their clients may be in violation of federal civil \u2062rights laws if those programs treat people differently on the basis of race.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s part of a broader push from the Right to counter DEI programs. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy&#8217;s jabs against DEI\u200c in the corporate sphere helped make him\u2064 a national figure. Another\u2064 2024 \u200cGOP primary \u2063rival of former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), made his name known nationally by \u200dbattling &#8220;woke&#8221; Sunshine State policies that\u200d included DEI.<\/p>\n<h3>Anti-Big Law DEI Litigation in Full Blum<\/h3>\n<p>Conservative\u2064 strategists \u200bhave targeted DEI efforts at\u200d a time when\u200d the public&#8217;s view on such \u2062policies appears to be\u200b out of lockstep \u2063with U.S. industries. \u200cThe \u2064Pew Research Center reported in June that more than\u200b half of U.S.\u200b residents think race shouldn&#8217;t be a factor in job applications.\u2062 However, a July Bloomberg\u200c Law \u2064report found that a\u200c majority of \u2063law firms, 79%, require diversity within a pool of candidates for management and\u2062 leadership \u200broles.<\/p>\n<p>A legal challenge is being led\u2064 by the guiding force behind the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision that curtailed\u200b race-based college admissions policies, Edward Blum. Lawyers\u2063 for his\u200c nonprofit group, the American\u200d Alliance\u200c for Equal Rights, on Aug. 22 filed a \u200dlawsuit against two of the nation&#8217;s top 100 law firms, alleging their paid diversity\u2062 scholarships are discriminatory since they exclude applicants based on race.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Race and ethnicity are attributes, not accomplishments,&#8221; Blum told the Washington Examiner. &#8220;It is the hope of this\u2064 organization, as \u200cwell as most \u2063Americans, that these \u2063law firms end these racial restrictions and open\u2062 these fellowships to \u2064all \u2064qualified applicants.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Still, Big Law DEI\u2063 programs aren&#8217;t going away without a fight.\u200d The American Bar Association&#8217;s president issued a statement on Aug. 25 declaring the legal profession needs \u200bto &#8220;identify ways to comply \u2062with \u200dthe\u2062 law while promoting diversity, inclusion \u200band equity in the legal profession.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Merle Vaughn, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/conservatives-challenge-big-laws-left-wing-tilt\/\" title=\"Conservatives question Big Law's left-leaning bias.\">national law firm diversity practice leader<\/a> at Major, Lindsey &#038; Africa, said some firms that \u200chave \u2064been threatened to cease their DEI programs may fight against\u200d the lawsuits before\u200d altering their policies. Many\u200d DEI-driven incentives are fueled \u200bby clients that require law firms to support \u2064diverse teams, Vaughn said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The folks \u2064with whom I&#8217;ve spoken and who have reached out to me from law firms have\u2062 made\u200c it pretty clear that they have no intention of letting this have \u200da chilling effect on\u200b what \u200cthey determined is important for their ability to service their clients and\u2063 give advice that is representative of our country,&#8221; Vaughn\u200b said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not every\u200d firm is as\u200d committed,&#8221; Vaughn added. But there have definitely been some \u201cfirms that have reached out to me\u200b and said, &#8216;If they come after us, we&#8217;ll fight it 100%.'&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Academia, news media, and entertainment industry have faced criticism for left-wing dominance. Now, Big Law joins the concern. The Am Law 100 and American Lawyer, the top law firms, consistently favor liberal positions in litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2025492,"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":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2025491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"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\/2025491","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2025491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2025491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2025492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2025491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2025491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2025491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}