Nice law firm summer internship you’ve got there! They tend to be high paying, potentially prestigious, and career trajectory setting positions that are aggressively competed for. Sure would be a shame if something happened to it. Like if the White Jobs Matter brigade got a helping boost from the EEOC to scare employers into keeping their minority levels low. In case you were wondering, that is probably going to happen soon. Bloomberg Law has coverage:
The group Americans for Equal Opportunity filed [a] charge Monday claiming Sponsors for Education Opportunity, and the firms it services as a “joint employer and staffing agency,” discriminated against White internship candidates in violation of federal civil rights law.
The charge could be a test case for whether the EEOC will target its enforcement towards diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it deems discriminatory, which is among the priorities laid out by Republican EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas.
According to Americans for Equal Opportunity, three White or White-presenting applicants were rejected in favor of other applicants from other backgrounds, despite having “academic qualifications and work experience that matched or exceeded” them. That phrasing is super interesting. The argument over applicants with better academic qualifications being chosen over people with lower scores isn’t all that original; I shared my opinions on the topic when I wrote about FASORP’s whining about who ultimately gets chosen for law review. But the matching qualifications and work experience prong is way more interesting. What’s the bright line for distinguishing an equally qualified applicant that is chosen due to their race from an equally qualified applicant that was chosen and happened to be a minority? Does the EEOC really need to get involved if it turns out that the White applicants with matching qualifications and work experience just happened to have worse soft components in their resume?
If the EEOC probes the claims, what ever they find could be interesting. If not, it’s only a matter of time before some other job-offering institution gets shaken down over discriminatory intent.
EEOC Asked to Probe Claims of Bias in Law Firm Intern Program [Bloomberg Law]
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, is interested in 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 Americans For Equal Opportunity Hope To Sic The EEOC On Biglaw Summer Internship Programs appeared first on Above the Law.
Nice law firm summer internship you’ve got there! They tend to be high paying, potentially prestigious, and career trajectory setting positions that are aggressively competed for. Sure would be a shame if something happened to it. Like if the White Jobs Matter brigade got a helping boost from the EEOC to scare employers into keeping their minority levels low. In case you were wondering, that is probably going to happen soon. Bloomberg Law has coverage:
The group Americans for Equal Opportunity filed [a] charge Monday claiming Sponsors for Education Opportunity, and the firms it services as a “joint employer and staffing agency,” discriminated against White internship candidates in violation of federal civil rights law.
The charge could be a test case for whether the EEOC will target its enforcement towards diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it deems discriminatory, which is among the priorities laid out by Republican EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas.
According to Americans for Equal Opportunity, three White or White-presenting applicants were rejected in favor of other applicants from other backgrounds, despite having “academic qualifications and work experience that matched or exceeded” them. That phrasing is super interesting. The argument over applicants with better academic qualifications being chosen over people with lower scores isn’t all that original; I shared my opinions on the topic when I wrote about FASORP’s whining about who ultimately gets chosen for law review. But the matching qualifications and work experience prong is way more interesting. What’s the bright line for distinguishing an equally qualified applicant that is chosen due to their race from an equally qualified applicant that was chosen and happened to be a minority? Does the EEOC really need to get involved if it turns out that the White applicants with matching qualifications and work experience just happened to have worse soft components in their resume?
If the EEOC probes the claims, what ever they find could be interesting. If not, it’s only a matter of time before some other job-offering institution gets shaken down over discriminatory intent.
EEOC Asked to Probe Claims of Bias in Law Firm Intern Program [Bloomberg Law]
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, is interested in 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 Americans For Equal Opportunity Hope To Sic The EEOC On Biglaw Summer Internship Programs appeared first on Above the Law.
