Late last week, we noted that K&L Gates made some edits to the firm website over the last month. Specifically, removing several references to diversity, the firm’s Mansfield pledge, and key stats about firm demographics. The firm’s Diversity and Inclusion committee even got a rebrand as the Opportunity and Inclusion committee.
It’s the sort of move many expected firms to take as the new Department of Justice publicly announces plans to use its power to prosecute private businesses for violating its vague “anti-DEI” principles, which in practice are going to look like companies being dragged into a USAO conference room and asked to specifically justify the existence of anyone on staff who isn’t a white guy.
A firmwide email followed attempting to explain the changes to attorneys and staff.
I understand it is the start of the weekend for many of you, but it’s important to address an issue that is front and center for K&L Gates leadership, as I’m sure it is for many of you. The rollout of changes to language on our Firm website regarding diversity was not handled as well as it should have been. Most significantly, we should have taken the opportunity to inform you in advance of what changes were being considered and why. I would like to take this opportunity to start that conversation – and we, including the leadership of the relevant Committees and other Firm leaders, also plan on hosting a videoconference soon to provide additional detail and perspective.
Generally speaking, “we should have taken the opportunity to inform you in advance of what changes were being considered and why” means “we hoped we would never HAVE to inform you.” Maybe that’s not the message the firm wants to send, but that’s how it reads from the outside and — I’m pretty confident — the inside as well.
The email explains that the firm’s commitment to these issues hasn’t changed even if the website has. We foreshadowed this sentiment in our original coverage, expecting the firm leadership to express that they would “remain committed to these causes even if they’ve pushed that commitment to harder-to-find corners of the site.” But, as we also noted, when the issue is inclusion, downplaying or hiding from these challenges is exclusionary in itself.
It pushes people back to the margins.
We are grateful to our Opportunity and Inclusion Committee, our Women in the Profession Committee, various related groups and committees, and our internal, allied professional team supporting their initiatives and efforts. These conversations can be challenging, but critical to upholding our values and preserving our culture.
For example, as we noted in the last piece, the firm had in the past referenced the “Women in the Profession Committee, Opportunity & Inclusion Committee, LGBTQ+ Subcommittee, Disability Inclusion Taskforce, and Veterans Taskforce.” It seems the LGBTQ+ Subcommittee, Disability Inclusion Taskforce, and Veterans Taskforce all got demoted to “various related groups and committees.”
This is the money passage though:
[T]he website changes are reflective of guidance being received by many clients and others, as entities understandably are taking a hard look at how to preserve their values amid fluctuating internal and external expectations and to ensure they remain compliant with shifting laws and regulations.
In the first Trump administration, most clients saw Trump and his causes as a toxic stain on their brands and didn’t even want their law firms tied to him. This time around, even if the disdain hasn’t ebbed, companies are worried enough about the existential threat of a vindictive administration to play ball. K&L Gates may or may not harbor that fear, but the “many clients and others” — who curiously seem to have had more of a hand in this website redesign than the firm rank-and-file — are worried enough about Trump to think this is a good idea.
But also, full credit to the ominous phrasing of “shifting laws and regulations.”
(Email, in relevant part, reproduced on the next page…)
Earlier: Biglaw Firm Quietly Begins Purging Diversity Language From Website
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
The post K&L Gates Responds After Scrubbing Diversity Language From Website appeared first on Above the Law.
Late last week, we noted that K&L Gates made some edits to the firm website over the last month. Specifically, removing several references to diversity, the firm’s Mansfield pledge, and key stats about firm demographics. The firm’s Diversity and Inclusion committee even got a rebrand as the Opportunity and Inclusion committee.
It’s the sort of move many expected firms to take as the new Department of Justice publicly announces plans to use its power to prosecute private businesses for violating its vague “anti-DEI” principles, which in practice are going to look like companies being dragged into a USAO conference room and asked to specifically justify the existence of anyone on staff who isn’t a white guy.
A firmwide email followed attempting to explain the changes to attorneys and staff.
I understand it is the start of the weekend for many of you, but it’s important to address an issue that is front and center for K&L Gates leadership, as I’m sure it is for many of you. The rollout of changes to language on our Firm website regarding diversity was not handled as well as it should have been. Most significantly, we should have taken the opportunity to inform you in advance of what changes were being considered and why. I would like to take this opportunity to start that conversation – and we, including the leadership of the relevant Committees and other Firm leaders, also plan on hosting a videoconference soon to provide additional detail and perspective.
Generally speaking, “we should have taken the opportunity to inform you in advance of what changes were being considered and why” means “we hoped we would never HAVE to inform you.” Maybe that’s not the message the firm wants to send, but that’s how it reads from the outside and — I’m pretty confident — the inside as well.
The email explains that the firm’s commitment to these issues hasn’t changed even if the website has. We foreshadowed this sentiment in our original coverage, expecting the firm leadership to express that they would “remain committed to these causes even if they’ve pushed that commitment to harder-to-find corners of the site.” But, as we also noted, when the issue is inclusion, downplaying or hiding from these challenges is exclusionary in itself.
It pushes people back to the margins.
We are grateful to our Opportunity and Inclusion Committee, our Women in the Profession Committee, various related groups and committees, and our internal, allied professional team supporting their initiatives and efforts. These conversations can be challenging, but critical to upholding our values and preserving our culture.
For example, as we noted in the last piece, the firm had in the past referenced the “Women in the Profession Committee, Opportunity & Inclusion Committee, LGBTQ+ Subcommittee, Disability Inclusion Taskforce, and Veterans Taskforce.” It seems the LGBTQ+ Subcommittee, Disability Inclusion Taskforce, and Veterans Taskforce all got demoted to “various related groups and committees.”
This is the money passage though:
[T]he website changes are reflective of guidance being received by many clients and others, as entities understandably are taking a hard look at how to preserve their values amid fluctuating internal and external expectations and to ensure they remain compliant with shifting laws and regulations.
In the first Trump administration, most clients saw Trump and his causes as a toxic stain on their brands and didn’t even want their law firms tied to him. This time around, even if the disdain hasn’t ebbed, companies are worried enough about the existential threat of a vindictive administration to play ball. K&L Gates may or may not harbor that fear, but the “many clients and others” — who curiously seem to have had more of a hand in this website redesign than the firm rank-and-file — are worried enough about Trump to think this is a good idea.
But also, full credit to the ominous phrasing of “shifting laws and regulations.”
(Email, in relevant part, reproduced on the next page…)
Earlier: Biglaw Firm Quietly Begins Purging Diversity Language From Website
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
