By Jake Perez, Editor at LinkedIn News
As Big Law increasingly aims to be on friendlier terms with the White House, it is creating some recruitment challenges, The Wall Street Journal reports. Students at elite colleges who disagree with the law firms’ political stances are withdrawing their applications for summer associate positions, and Georgetown Law even canceled a recruitment event with one firm this week. Other students are moving forward with interviews amid the boycotts but using the opportunity to ask sharp questions about where their potential employer stands on issues.
Lindsay EllisLindsay Ellis • 3rd+3rd+Reporter at The Wall Street JournalReporter at The Wall Street Journal
New from me: Campus recruiting is the newest front in the Trump-induced turmoil at some of the country’s most prominent law firms.
In the days since Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps and other elite firms cut deals with the president to fend off punitive orders, their actions have set off protests and recruiting boycotts among the next wave of top young legal talent. Georgetown Law students canceled a recruiting event this week with Skadden. A group of students and lawyers is circulating a missive on social media and over email, urging students at top schools to refrain from applying to the firms.
"1Ls are staring down six-figure debt, and going to work at one of these highly ranked and big-paying, big-name firms is the dream for a lot of them,” said Caleb Frye, co-president of Georgetown’s energy law group. “On the other hand, we’re not looking to sacrifice our moral values to do so.”
Gotta love the preening, self-congratulatory comments from the law students. Here are two of them:
Sriram (Ram) SridharanSriram (Ram) Sridharan3rd+Economic Justice and Safety Net Policy | J.D. Candidate at Georgetown LawEconomic Justice and Safety Net Policy | J.D. Candidate at Georgetown Law
This is a time for everyone to ask how we can rise to this extraordinary moment. This goes for law students in particular. We represent the next generation of attorneys, civil servants, public leaders, and powerful institutional actors. Rising to this moment, for us, must include a fresh inspection of who we aspire to work for. We bring immense power to the institutions we join. Our choice of employment, therefore, is the greatest piece of leverage we have to send a clear message: *we will not join the ranks of organizations that fail the moral imperative of non-cooperation with those who seek to dismantle democracy and the rule of law*. I am proud to be peers with folks at Georgetown University Law Center, like Caleb Frye (follow him for more on all of this), who are demonstrating that moral clarity, and I implore everyone else to join us.
As law students, we must also respond to the pressures our peers face. For the majority of students going to firms, we must support them with clear decision-making frameworks and heuristics about the relative merits of different firms. … [I] encourage other law students to share with their peers about firms they're avoiding. Social proof that a lot of law students are making different employment choices will help normalize these criteria and build momentum.
Public interest law students, like myself [prime Skadden Arps material, not] are entering the job market when the civil service has been decimated. We must help them with the necessary infrastructure to find promising opportunities in state and local governments, advocacy organizations, and other public interest groups. I am beginning an effort at law school to organize a slate of programming and networking to facilitate these possibilities. ….
If you are a law student headed to OCI, I understand your conundrum. But ask yourself, what names do you want on your resume? How do you want your choices evaluated when we look for allies to fight and rebuild? Attached is a sheet tracking which law firms have caved and which ones have stood up for democracy. Law firms like Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates or Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP were not asked to become altruists or even exhibit uncommon courage. They were simply asked to make the same business calculation that some of their own peers have: standing up to these attacks may just be less damaging to their bottom lines, their reputations, and the talent they attract. These firms concluded that that is not the right business decision. You can now prove them wrong. Take your talents elsewhere.
https://lnkd.in/eFr6vmS9
And this dolt:
Aidan Bassett • 3rd+3rd+JD Candidate, Georgetown University Law CenterJD Candidate, Georgetown University Law Center1w • Edited • 1 week ago
“I spoke with Law360 today about the imperative for law firms to fight to preserve the rule of law. This morning, the Georgetown Energy Law Group (GELG) took a principled stand to withdraw from an exclusive recruiting event with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates in response to its preemptive cooperation with the Trump administration's lawless attacks on major law firms.
…. As a member of Law Students for Climate Accountability 's National Student Leadership Committee for the past two years, I have worked alongside a movement of my peers to remind our classmates that, for most students fortunate enough to attend elite law schools, employment is a moral choice. Firms paying $200,000+ starting salaries and representing the largest corporations in the world are not neutral actors. They are movers and shakers.
”When the rule of law is in danger, where you work makes a statement about what you value. Law students are an influential class. After all, we embody the future of the legal system. I hope students and firms choose to show the world that America's lawyers are a cornerstone of its civil society — and the fiercest advocates for the democratic rule of law.”
