Reed Smith, long recognized as a Gold Standard Firm by the Women In Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), has done away with all of the diversity shit it professed as near and dear to its heart for the last decade or so. I’d link you to them bragging about how important diversity is to them, but that’s kind of the story here. They’re pulling a K&L Gates on all of their diversity-forward messaging. The article praising Katy Basile for how her “mentorship of the firm’s Black junior attorneys earned her recognition as a “Top US Advocate” on EMpower’s Ethnic Minority Role Model List” is still up at the time I’m writing this, but in the near future you may have to rely on the Wayback machine to find any proof of Reed Smith’s (former) commitments to diversity. Bloomberg Law has coverage:
Global law firm Reed Smith is doing away with the DEI branding for hiring and promotion in response to a workplace discrimination probe by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Reed Smith will “retire our DEI program,” global managing partner Casey Ryan said Tuesday in a firmwide email viewed by Bloomberg Law. The firm instead “will provide offerings going forward under the banner ‘Culture & Engagement,’” she said.
If you’re going for a rebrand, why not lean into it and just house everything under the banner of “Good Vibes” or “Thoughts and Prayers”? Stacy Hawkins, a Rutgers Law professor quoted in the article, does a great job of refocusing the reader on the fact that it doesn’t really matter what these firms call their nouveau diversity attempts. Is your program — by design or consequence — geared toward the historically disenfranchised? Full stop. No? Then stop aura farming and be upfront that you’re killing your DEI program because it would either cost too much to maintain or you were looking for an excuse to get rid of it anyway. If the answer is yes, prepare for the upcoming lawsuits and ask Perkins Coie or Davis Wright Tremaine to exchange notes with you. Because even if the new name for your program is facially neutral, you’re still in hot water if the program benefits women and other minorities by proxy.
And, for fear that the term “Stay Woke” has lost all meaning, keep your damn eyes open. There’s a lot of talk about the need to get rid of DEI programs because they are actually quota requirements that force employers to hire “inferior workers”, but why isn’t this energy consistent whenever some highly qualified applicant gets excluded from the hiring pool? Where is this energy when decorated generals get replaced by TV show hosts? That’s the thing about actual functioning meritocracies — make all the arguments you want for the inherent tendencies toward hierarchy and exclusion that arise from highly competitive talent pools, but the outcomes are only valid if the field to compete is actually open. Bear in mind that the discourse on “merit” is happening at the same time that we’re seeing brilliant students and employees get their student and work visas revoked, preventing them from competing for “American” jobs. Or while reporters who just happen to be dating a Congress member get put in a position to ask foreign leaders about outfit choices. That isn’t meritocracy — that’s power naturalizing its propensity to exclude members of the out group as “the way things are,” which precludes discussions of equity or inclusion as they relate to merit.
That may have gotten a little heady. Reed Smith got rid of their diversity program. That’s the take away.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post Reed Smith Puts Down Their DEI Programs To Dodge The EEOC appeared first on Above the Law.
Reed Smith, long recognized as a Gold Standard Firm by the Women In Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), has done away with all of the diversity shit it professed as near and dear to its heart for the last decade or so. I’d link you to them bragging about how important diversity is to them, but that’s kind of the story here. They’re pulling a K&L Gates on all of their diversity-forward messaging. The article praising Katy Basile for how her “mentorship of the firm’s Black junior attorneys earned her recognition as a “Top US Advocate” on EMpower’s Ethnic Minority Role Model List” is still up at the time I’m writing this, but in the near future you may have to rely on the Wayback machine to find any proof of Reed Smith’s (former) commitments to diversity. Bloomberg Law has coverage:
Global law firm Reed Smith is doing away with the DEI branding for hiring and promotion in response to a workplace discrimination probe by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Reed Smith will “retire our DEI program,” global managing partner Casey Ryan said Tuesday in a firmwide email viewed by Bloomberg Law. The firm instead “will provide offerings going forward under the banner ‘Culture & Engagement,’” she said.
If you’re going for a rebrand, why not lean into it and just house everything under the banner of “Good Vibes” or “Thoughts and Prayers”? Stacy Hawkins, a Rutgers Law professor quoted in the article, does a great job of refocusing the reader on the fact that it doesn’t really matter what these firms call their nouveau diversity attempts. Is your program — by design or consequence — geared toward the historically disenfranchised? Full stop. No? Then stop aura farming and be upfront that you’re killing your DEI program because it would either cost too much to maintain or you were looking for an excuse to get rid of it anyway. If the answer is yes, prepare for the upcoming lawsuits and ask Perkins Coie or Davis Wright Tremaine to exchange notes with you. Because even if the new name for your program is facially neutral, you’re still in hot water if the program benefits women and other minorities by proxy.
And, for fear that the term “Stay Woke” has lost all meaning, keep your damn eyes open. There’s a lot of talk about the need to get rid of DEI programs because they are actually quota requirements that force employers to hire “inferior workers”, but why isn’t this energy consistent whenever some highly qualified applicant gets excluded from the hiring pool? Where is this energy when decorated generals get replaced by TV show hosts? That’s the thing about actual functioning meritocracies — make all the arguments you want for the inherent tendencies toward hierarchy and exclusion that arise from highly competitive talent pools, but the outcomes are only valid if the field to compete is actually open. Bear in mind that the discourse on “merit” is happening at the same time that we’re seeing brilliant students and employees get their student and work visas revoked, preventing them from competing for “American” jobs. Or while reporters who just happen to be dating a Congress member get put in a position to ask foreign leaders about outfit choices. That isn’t meritocracy — that’s power naturalizing its propensity to exclude members of the out group as “the way things are,” which precludes discussions of equity or inclusion as they relate to merit.
That may have gotten a little heady. Reed Smith got rid of their diversity program. That’s the take away.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
