Two big law firms sued for blatant racial discrimination

The Alliance for Equal Rights has filed lawsuits against two major law firms — Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster. The suits were filed in U.S. district court in Dallas and Miami, respectively.

Perkins Coie is the Democrats’ go-to firm in election dispute cases. The Alliance for Equal Rights is headed by the estimable Edward Blum, the man behind the successful suits against Harvard and UNC for discrimination in college admissions.

The suit against Perkins Coie focuses on two paid fellowships, one for first-year law students and one for students in their second years. The fellowships are available only to students “of color,” students who identify as LBGTQ, and students with disabilities.

Straight, able-bodied white students need not apply.

The suit against Morrison & Foerster attacks a similar program. That firm’s fellowship for “excellence, diversity and inclusion,” is limited to “first-year law students who are members of an underrepresented group in the legal industry.”

The Alliance for Equal Rights brings these actins under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. §1981. That act provides: “All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts. . . .” Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster violate this provision by expressly refusing to contract with certain applicants based on their race and ethnicity.

The violation are obvious — so obvious that the Washington Post apparently was unable to find any source who would defend, as a legal matter, the practices in question. Stacy Hawkins, a law professor at Rutgers told the Post:

What employers are doing now is really not affirmative action. Quite frankly, the most risky thing an employer can do is make any employment decision explicitly on the basis of race or gender.

Right. Because doing so is flatly illegal.

Krissy Katzenstein, an employment law specialist in private practice, told the Post that legal precedent up until now has allowed for narrow exceptions for efforts by companies “to address some sort of historical imbalance.” But she added that these practices must be targeted, temporary and “done in a manner that doesn’t unnecessarily trample the rights of other employees.”

Being totally excluded from consideration because of one’s race certainly tramples on fundamental rights. I doubt that any court has upheld the kind of blanket exclusions that Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster impose, except perhaps decades ago with employers or unions that excluded blacks entirely.

Moreover, one of Perkins Coie’s exclusionary fellowships was instituted in 1991. Morrison & Foerster’s commenced in 2012. Clearly, neither can be viewed as “temporary.”

To anyone not familiar with contemporary big law, it might come as a surprise that major law firms are so blatantly flouting the law. To those of us familiar with big law, the unlawful discrimination isn’t surprising. Just disgusting.