As the Palm Beach Post reports<\/a>, the DEI net is cast particularly wide. The following will stop a firm from getting hired by the AG\u2019s office:<\/p>\n Yes, even affinity groups are banned under this retrograde policy. If you think this sound like a cartoon villain, well, you aren\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go to other states across the country, attorneys general are fighting for consumer protection and consumer rights, not going after gay clubs and law firms who dare have a commitment to their diverse communities,\u201d Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said. \u201cIt\u2019s so out of touch from what everyday people want. I mean, it\u2019s so cartoonish.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the memo, firms \u201cthat have demonstrated a history of racially discriminating against their own attorneys, staff, and job applicants will no longer be considered eligible for state work, absent a compelling demonstration of changed behavior and a rejection of discriminatory principles.\u201d But, to be clear (in case it wasn\u2019t already), some of what firms are being punished for isn\u2019t discriminatory. And not in an of-course-DEI-is-not-discrimination way (which is also true) but in an adjudicated-by-a-federal-court way.<\/p>\n One of the barred activities (if a firm wants a Florida contract) is participation in the Mansfield Certification program. But in May, a federal judge found, \u201cMansfield Rule expressly does not establish any hiring quotas or other illegally discriminatory practices, requiring only that participating law firms consider attorneys from diverse backgrounds for certain positions.\u201d So it\u2019s pretty clear that, despite the bluster about discrimination, this is *really* about far-right policy goals.<\/p>\n Speaking of, the memo also takes its shots at climate change \u2014 that is, stopping climate change.<\/p>\n Also, NetZero Lawyers Alliance, which commits to \u201csupport the goal of net zero\u201d carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, \u201cembodies the worst of the discriminatory ESG apparatus,\u201d according to the memo. And NetZero Practice Groups, which the memo asserts push DEI and ESG policies onto corporate clients \u201cmaking this promotion of discriminatory policies in a prime money-making operation while undermining the rule of law and other principles that Florida holds dear.\u201d<\/p>\n With the president taking aim at Biglaw<\/a>, it was inevitable that red states would also shoot their shot.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post Florida AG Declares War On Law Firms Over DEI<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oh, Florida.<\/p>\n Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just made the latest move to make his state the MAGA-ist of them all. Uthmeier just sent a memo<\/a> to law firms letting them know that his office will not hire law firms as outside counsel that have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. And yes, that\u2019s wildly broad.<\/p>\n As the Palm Beach Post reports<\/a>, the DEI net is cast particularly wide. The following will stop a firm from getting hired by the AG\u2019s office:<\/p>\n Yes, even affinity groups are banned under this retrograde policy. If you think this sound like a cartoon villain, well, you aren\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go to other states across the country, attorneys general are fighting for consumer protection and consumer rights, not going after gay clubs and law firms who dare have a commitment to their diverse communities,\u201d Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said. \u201cIt\u2019s so out of touch from what everyday people want. I mean, it\u2019s so cartoonish.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the memo, firms \u201cthat have demonstrated a history of racially discriminating against their own attorneys, staff, and job applicants will no longer be considered eligible for state work, absent a compelling demonstration of changed behavior and a rejection of discriminatory principles.\u201d But, to be clear (in case it wasn\u2019t already), some of what firms are being punished for isn\u2019t discriminatory. And not in an of-course-DEI-is-not-discrimination way (which is also true) but in an adjudicated-by-a-federal-court way.<\/p>\n One of the barred activities (if a firm wants a Florida contract) is participation in the Mansfield Certification program. But in May, a federal judge found, \u201cMansfield Rule expressly does not establish any hiring quotas or other illegally discriminatory practices, requiring only that participating law firms consider attorneys from diverse backgrounds for certain positions.\u201d So it\u2019s pretty clear that, despite the bluster about discrimination, this is *really* about far-right policy goals.<\/p>\n Speaking of, the memo also takes its shots at climate change \u2014 that is, stopping climate change.<\/p>\n Also, NetZero Lawyers Alliance, which commits to \u201csupport the goal of net zero\u201d carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, \u201cembodies the worst of the discriminatory ESG apparatus,\u201d according to the memo. And NetZero Practice Groups, which the memo asserts push DEI and ESG policies onto corporate clients \u201cmaking this promotion of discriminatory policies in a prime money-making operation while undermining the rule of law and other principles that Florida holds dear.\u201d<\/p>\n With the president taking aim at Biglaw<\/a>, it was inevitable that red states would also shoot their shot.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post Florida AG Declares War On Law Firms Over DEI<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oh, Florida. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just made the latest move to make his state the MAGA-ist of them all. Uthmeier just sent a memo to law firms letting them know that his office will not hire law firms as outside counsel that have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129628,"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-129627","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\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-I8Ufb3.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129627","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=129627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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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<\/blockquote>\n\n
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\nKathryn 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<\/blockquote>\n