{"id":158438,"date":"2024-12-25T12:05:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T20:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=158438"},"modified":"2025-03-23T16:33:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T00:33:30","slug":"wp-conservatives-are-suing-law-firms-over-diversity-efforts-its-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=158438","title":{"rendered":"WP: &#8216;Conservatives are suing law firms over diversity efforts. It\u2019s working.&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><A HREF=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2023\/12\/09\/conservatives-sue-law-firms-dei\/\">The Washington Post reported Dec. 9, 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nThe conservative campaign to dismantle corporate diversity initiatives has hit pay dirt by focusing on a surprising target: law firms&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>These actions have spurred some swift changes: Three big law firms \u2014 Perkins Coie, Morrison Foerster and Winston &#038; Strawn \u2014 opened their fellowships aimed at students of color to students of all races and backgrounds after being sued. After receiving an Oct. 9 letter threatening litigation, a fourth law firm, Adams and Reese, ended its diversity fellowship&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Merle Vaughn, national law firm diversity practice leader with Major, Lindsey &#038; Africa, said law firms are under so much pressure because DEI opponents \u201crealize that law firms are traditionally risk-averse, and lawyers are risk-averse by nature.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><A HREF=\"https:\/\/legal.thomsonreuters.com\/blog\/risky-business-aligning-the-legal-department-with-the-companys-risk-tolerance-levels\/\">Thompson Reuters notes<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lawyers tend to be very risk-averse, and that predilection often leads to clashes with the business and unnecessary friction in the day-to-day operations of the business, especially when it comes to contracts. Yes, lawyers can spot a crummy deal from a mile away but legal doesn\u2019t run the business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Google AI provides these reasons for why lawyers are so risk averse:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lawyers&#8217; training<br \/>\nLawyers are trained to focus on what could go wrong and protect clients, which can lead to a risk-averse approach.<br \/>\nLegal education<br \/>\nLaw schools focus on litigation and the Socratic method, rather than teaching skills like data analysis, coding, and statistics.<br \/>\nLegal culture<br \/>\nLaw firms are built around a culture that frowns on risk, and decisions are only made after thorough analysis and paperwork.<br \/>\nPerception<br \/>\nLawyers are often perceived as being unable to see the big picture due to their obsession with details. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Post reported Dec. 9, 2023: The conservative campaign to dismantle corporate diversity initiatives has hit pay dirt by focusing on a surprising target: law firms&#8230;. These actions have spurred some swift changes: Three big law firms \u2014 Perkins &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=158438\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158438"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158444,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158438\/revisions\/158444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}