{"id":116502,"date":"2025-04-25T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/skaddens-email-policy-in-the-wake-of-trump-deal-triggers-government-investigation\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T18:03:07","slug":"skaddens-email-policy-in-the-wake-of-trump-deal-triggers-government-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/skaddens-email-policy-in-the-wake-of-trump-deal-triggers-government-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Skadden\u2019s Email Policy In The Wake Of Trump Deal Triggers Government Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly a month ago, it was revealed that Skadden decided to ink a deal<\/a> with the Trump administration to provide $100 million in pro bono payola<\/a> to avoid one of the\u00a0increasingly common<\/a>\u00a0Executive Orders targeting Biglaw, and the\u00a0tremendous harm<\/a>\u00a0that can bring. But that wasn\u2019t the only strange thing afoot.<\/p>\n

As Above the Law reported<\/a>, in the wake of the controversial deal, the Biglaw firm shut off associates\u2019 ability to email certain mass email distribution lists. But the process didn\u2019t go as dystopianly as they\u2019d planned, as the plan was inadvertently revealed (via mass email, because irony isn\u2019t dead) as firm leadership wondered how an associate was able to send an innocuous farewell email on their last day at the firm.<\/p>\n

But the snafu isn\u2019t just bad PR. Yesterday, the National Institute for Workers\u2019 Rights filed an unfair labor practice\u00a0charge<\/a>\u00a0against Skadden with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the move was an interference with associates\u2019 rights. As the filing notes, \u201cAssociates used firm email to discuss these changes, submit resignations, plan coordinated rejections of recruitment activities, and express concerns about the impact on what they do, with whom they work, and their ethical obligations.\u201d As reported by <\/a>Bloomberg Law:<\/p>\n

\n

For example, the group cited NLRB\u00a0precedent<\/a>\u00a0spanning 60 years that\u00a0establish<\/a>\u00a0concerns about hiring and diversity practices directly relate to the terms and conditions of employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn expressing concern about backing away from diversity initiatives, some Skadden lawyers were indicating that they thought it was important to continue to try to hire more lawyers of color,\u201d the group said. \u201cThe caselaw establishes that this is protected concerted activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From here, agency staffers will launch a probe into the allegations, and, if they determine there\u2019s merit in the claims the regional director will issue a complaint.<\/p>\n

Of course, the NLRB is currently without quorum since Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox \u2014 a move that is being challenged in court \u2014 though the board\u2019s work (including investigating allegations of this sort) is ongoing<\/a>.<\/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

The post Skadden\u2019s Email Policy In The Wake Of Trump Deal Triggers Government Investigation<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by David Lat)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly a month ago, it was revealed that Skadden decided to ink a deal<\/a> with the Trump administration to provide $100 million in pro bono payola<\/a> to avoid one of the\u00a0increasingly common<\/a>\u00a0Executive Orders targeting Biglaw, and the\u00a0tremendous harm<\/a>\u00a0that can bring. But that wasn\u2019t the only strange thing afoot.<\/p>\n

As Above the Law reported<\/a>, in the wake of the controversial deal, the Biglaw firm shut off associates\u2019 ability to email certain mass email distribution lists. But the process didn\u2019t go as dystopianly as they\u2019d planned, as the plan was inadvertently revealed (via mass email, because irony isn\u2019t dead) as firm leadership wondered how an associate was able to send an innocuous farewell email on their last day at the firm.<\/p>\n

But the snafu isn\u2019t just bad PR. Yesterday, the National Institute for Workers\u2019 Rights filed an unfair labor practice\u00a0charge<\/a>\u00a0against Skadden with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the move was an interference with associates\u2019 rights. As the filing notes, \u201cAssociates used firm email to discuss these changes, submit resignations, plan coordinated rejections of recruitment activities, and express concerns about the impact on what they do, with whom they work, and their ethical obligations.\u201d As reported by <\/a>Bloomberg Law:<\/p>\n

\n

For example, the group cited NLRB\u00a0precedent<\/a>\u00a0spanning 60 years that\u00a0establish<\/a>\u00a0concerns about hiring and diversity practices directly relate to the terms and conditions of employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn expressing concern about backing away from diversity initiatives, some Skadden lawyers were indicating that they thought it was important to continue to try to hire more lawyers of color,\u201d the group said. \u201cThe caselaw establishes that this is protected concerted activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From here, agency staffers will launch a probe into the allegations, and, if they determine there\u2019s merit in the claims the regional director will issue a complaint.<\/p>\n

Of course, the NLRB is currently without quorum since Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox \u2014 a move that is being challenged in court \u2014 though the board\u2019s work (including investigating allegations of this sort) is ongoing<\/a>.<\/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":"

Nearly a month ago, it was revealed that Skadden decided to ink a deal with the Trump administration to provide $100 million in pro bono payola to avoid one of the\u00a0increasingly common\u00a0Executive Orders targeting Biglaw, and the\u00a0tremendous harm\u00a0that can bring. But that wasn\u2019t the only strange thing afoot. As Above the Law reported, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116459,"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-116502","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\/04\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-CSdC9Z.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116502","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=116502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}