{"id":122722,"date":"2025-06-11T09:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/11\/kirkland-axes-a-bunch-of-dei-staff-because-of-course\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T09:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T17:42:06","slug":"kirkland-axes-a-bunch-of-dei-staff-because-of-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/11\/kirkland-axes-a-bunch-of-dei-staff-because-of-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirkland Axes A Bunch Of DEI Staff, Because Of Course"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump began his second (and hopefully last<\/a>) term by attacking Biglaw firms and the rule of law<\/a>. Trump nominally used Biglaw\u2019s commitment<\/a> to DEI as a pretext to pursue his personal <\/a>vendettas, even using the EEOC<\/a> to further his goals. Nine yellow-bellied Biglaw firms<\/a> (Paul Weiss, Skadden, Willkie Farr, Milbank, Cadwalader, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, and A&O Shearman) capitulated to the demands of Trump allowing him to amass a nearly\u00a0$1 billion war chest<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0pro bono payola<\/a>. Both\u00a0sides of the political spectrum<\/a> see it as a\u00a0black eye on the profession)<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a move that\u00a0sells out<\/a>\u00a0the very principle of the\u00a0rule of law.<\/p>\n

Now Kirkland & Ellis \u2014 a firm that shamefully led the charge<\/a> to bend a knee to Trump \u2014 is making cuts to its DEI staff, replacing global inclusion director Joi Bourgeois with associate director of firmwide inclusion Grace Geronimo and eliminating some positions.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> Law.com:<\/p>\n

\n

The cuts mark a reduction in the size of Kirkland\u2019s DEI-focused staff, although it was not clear at press time whether they were related to the Trump administration\u2019s scrutiny of the law firm\u2019s DEI practices. One source familiar with the firm said the cuts were tied to a firmwide staff reorganization that began before the November presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I mean\u2026. I think I speak for most observers when I say I am highly skeptical the cuts are unrelated to Donald Trump\u2019s war on DEI \u2014 and perhaps more accurately, to Kirkland\u2019s capitulation to Trump\u2019s demands. And if it isn\u2019t, the firm simply must be aware that is the perception that would permeate the industry when they made the cuts *now*. This is the world\u2019s richest law firm; they made $8.8 billion is gross revenue last year. So it\u2019s not like these cuts are essential to the firm\u2019s financial well-being \u2014 if they wanted to assure the industry they stand behind DEI, they would.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the statement Kirkland is making in 2025.<\/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 Kirkland Axes A Bunch Of DEI Staff, Because Of Course<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Donald Trump began his second (and hopefully last<\/a>) term by attacking Biglaw firms and the rule of law<\/a>. Trump nominally used Biglaw\u2019s commitment<\/a> to DEI as a pretext to pursue his personal <\/a>vendettas, even using the EEOC<\/a> to further his goals. Nine yellow-bellied Biglaw firms<\/a> (Paul Weiss, Skadden, Willkie Farr, Milbank, Cadwalader, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, and A&O Shearman) capitulated to the demands of Trump allowing him to amass a nearly\u00a0$1 billion war chest<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0pro bono payola<\/a>. Both\u00a0sides of the political spectrum<\/a> see it as a\u00a0black eye on the profession)<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a move that\u00a0sells out<\/a>\u00a0the very principle of the\u00a0rule of law.<\/p>\n

Now Kirkland & Ellis \u2014 a firm that shamefully led the charge<\/a> to bend a knee to Trump \u2014 is making cuts to its DEI staff, replacing global inclusion director Joi Bourgeois with associate director of firmwide inclusion Grace Geronimo and eliminating some positions.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> Law.com:<\/p>\n

\n

The cuts mark a reduction in the size of Kirkland\u2019s DEI-focused staff, although it was not clear at press time whether they were related to the Trump administration\u2019s scrutiny of the law firm\u2019s DEI practices. One source familiar with the firm said the cuts were tied to a firmwide staff reorganization that began before the November presidential election.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I mean\u2026. I think I speak for most observers when I say I am highly skeptical the cuts are unrelated to Donald Trump\u2019s war on DEI \u2014 and perhaps more accurately, to Kirkland\u2019s capitulation to Trump\u2019s demands. And if it isn\u2019t, the firm simply must be aware that is the perception that would permeate the industry when they made the cuts *now*. This is the world\u2019s richest law firm; they made $8.8 billion is gross revenue last year. So it\u2019s not like these cuts are essential to the firm\u2019s financial well-being \u2014 if they wanted to assure the industry they stand behind DEI, they would.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the statement Kirkland is making in 2025.<\/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":"

Donald Trump began his second (and hopefully last) term by attacking Biglaw firms and the rule of law. Trump nominally used Biglaw\u2019s commitment to DEI as a pretext to pursue his personal vendettas, even using the EEOC to further his goals. Nine yellow-bellied Biglaw firms (Paul Weiss, Skadden, Willkie Farr, Milbank, Cadwalader, Kirkland & Ellis, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":122685,"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-122722","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\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-vwTkWE.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122722","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=122722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}