The ABA Complains About Efforts To Require Law Firms To Follow Anti-Discrimination Laws

ABA President Mary Smith says she is "deeply troubled" by challenges to law firm diversity programs brought pursuant to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision

Mary Smith, President ABA

Seattle-based Perkins Coie, LLP, an international law firm, has since 1991 reserved lucrative paid fellowships for minority first- and second-year law students of color, LGBTQ+, community members, and students with disabilities.

Morrison & Foerster, a San Francisco-based firm with 1,000 lawyers in the U.S., Asia and Europe, offers $50,000 fellowships for “highly motivated first-year law students who are members of an underrepresented group in the legal industry,” including African Americans, Latinx, Native Americans or LGVTQ+.

Both firms are being sued in U.S. District Court for race discrimination by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, which in June won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit prohibiting affirmative action at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

Mary Smith, president of the American Bar Association, on Friday issued a statement that the ABA is “deeply troubled by the recent efforts of some elected officials and advocacy groups to attack diversity programs at law firms.” She seemed to call for firms to find a work around to blunt the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision but did not elaborate.

Edward Jay Blum, president of the AAER, argues that it violates federal law to discriminate on the basis of race and is contrary to polls that show 75% of Americans, including most blacks and Hispanics, believe an applicant’s race should not be a factor in promotion and hiring decisions.