Edward Blum, a conservative legal activist, recently spearheaded a group that lodged lawsuits against two Am Law 100 firms, which allegedly discriminates via their respective paid diversity fellowships. Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster, the firms implicated, were served the lawsuits in Texas and Florida – jurisdictions seen as amenable for complaints the group intends to escalate to the U.S. Supreme Court. These lawsuits, filed on behalf of a “white, heterosexual man”, seek to eliminate the diversity fellowships at these firms.
The legal action has triggered other firms to scrutinize the wording in their own diversity programs to avoid being targeted by similar lawsuits. The American Alliance for Equal Rights argues that the language in the firms’ diversity fellowship applications is exclusionary, something that they claim to be unlawful discrimination against a “white, non-disabled heterosexual man”. With this in mind, legal professionals might need to pay careful attention to the wording of their diversity programs and fellowships to minimize potential legal complications.
For a comprehensive overview of this developing situation, visit the original article on law.com.