44 Law Firms Hit With Discrimination Complaint Over Race-Based Internship

WFB:

Forty-four of the nation’s largest law firms were hit with a discrimination complaint on Monday alleging that they use an outside staffing agency to hire interns based on race, putting Big Law on track for another clash with the Trump administration.

The complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, targets Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a nonprofit that places minority students at elite firms the summer before their first year of law school. The paid internship often leads to a return offer the following summers, giving recipients an extraordinary leg up on their white peers.

Americans for Opportunity, the group that filed the complaint, is asking the EEOC to investigate both SEO and its sponsor firms, which include Wachtell Lipton, Davis Polk, and Sullivan & Cromwell. If the agency launches a probe, it could put an end to what the complaint describes as “the largest racially discriminatory hiring pipeline program in the legal field.” more

5 Comments on 44 Law Firms Hit With Discrimination Complaint Over Race-Based Internship

  1. Outside staffing agency: plausible deniability. “We didn’t know they were doing that. We honestly thought that minorities were the only people who qualified for the positions!”

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