{"id":112026,"date":"2025-03-26T14:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T22:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/26\/are-associates-going-to-go-on-strike-over-biglaws-cowardice\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T14:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T22:03:19","slug":"are-associates-going-to-go-on-strike-over-biglaws-cowardice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/26\/are-associates-going-to-go-on-strike-over-biglaws-cowardice\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Associates Going To Go On Strike Over Biglaw\u2019s Cowardice?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Protests outside of the offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a lot of anger directed at Biglaw \u2014 and not just from the Trump administration. Faced with existential attacks<\/a> from the executive branch, too many firms in Biglaw are trying to hide<\/a> (or worse, appease Trump<\/a>) rather than fight. And there are open letters<\/a>, protests, and resignations<\/a> from those infuriated<\/a> at all the wealthy firms that are not standing up for the rule of law<\/a> and for diversity efforts <\/a>that are also under attack.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s agitation for associates to organize in a more concrete effort. <\/p>\n

Former Skadden associate Rachel Cohen told Law.com<\/a> associates are thinking about hitting Biglaw where it hurts \u2014 in recruiting:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA number of associates at a number of firms are talking about doing recruitment strikes if firms do not commit to not complying with the EEOC\u2019s demands,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cFirms are very reliant on associates being able to do interviews themselves most of the time. That\u2019s an element where we have a lot of agency that comes with not a lot of risk to one\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That low-risk-to-their-own-career thing, while not the most inspiring, might be key to the collective action. Because as little support<\/a> as the Paul Weiss approach has amongst associates, just quitting is tough in the current job market. \u201cThere\u2019s not a robust lateral market right now,\u201d one recruiter who works with associates told Law.com. Which mirrors the dilemma Paul Weiss faced before they capitulated to Trump.<\/a> Of course, Paul Weiss has billions in revenue to insulate through the difficulties of actually standing up to do the right thing. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post Are Associates Going To Go On Strike Over Biglaw\u2019s Cowardice?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Protests outside of the offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a lot of anger directed at Biglaw \u2014 and not just from the Trump administration. Faced with existential attacks<\/a> from the executive branch, too many firms in Biglaw are trying to hide<\/a> (or worse, appease Trump<\/a>) rather than fight. And there are open letters<\/a>, protests, and resignations<\/a> from those infuriated<\/a> at all the wealthy firms that are not standing up for the rule of law<\/a> and for diversity efforts <\/a>that are also under attack.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s agitation for associates to organize in a more concrete effort. <\/p>\n

Former Skadden associate Rachel Cohen told Law.com<\/a> associates are thinking about hitting Biglaw where it hurts \u2014 in recruiting:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA number of associates at a number of firms are talking about doing recruitment strikes if firms do not commit to not complying with the EEOC\u2019s demands,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cFirms are very reliant on associates being able to do interviews themselves most of the time. That\u2019s an element where we have a lot of agency that comes with not a lot of risk to one\u2019s career.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That low-risk-to-their-own-career thing, while not the most inspiring, might be key to the collective action. Because as little support<\/a> as the Paul Weiss approach has amongst associates, just quitting is tough in the current job market. \u201cThere\u2019s not a robust lateral market right now,\u201d one recruiter who works with associates told Law.com. Which mirrors the dilemma Paul Weiss faced before they capitulated to Trump.<\/a> Of course, Paul Weiss has billions in revenue to insulate through the difficulties of actually standing up to do the right thing. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protests outside of the offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images) There\u2019s a lot of anger directed at Biglaw \u2014 and not just from the Trump administration. Faced with existential attacks from the executive branch, too many firms in Biglaw are trying to hide (or worse, appease Trump) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-tTKsgP.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}