The law firm representing Hunter Biden in his ongoing tax case has a diversity scholarship explicitly designed for people from “historically underrepresented” backgrounds, advertising materials show.
Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, is a partner at law firm Winston & Strawn LLP, which offers second-year law students a $50,000 diversity scholarship if they participate in the firm’s summer program and accept a full time position afterwards. Membership in a marginalized group is a requirement for applicants, according to an advertising document first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon. (RELATED: Big Bank Exec Alleges Company Fired Him To Reach Diversity Goals)
NEW: Five of America’s top law firms operate diversity programs that exclude white applicants or explicitly favor minorities.
The firms are Wachtell Lipton, Winston & Strawn, Baker McKenzie, Sidley Austin, and Susman Godfrey.🧵https://t.co/frzAnFoIra
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) September 12, 2023
“Be a member of a disadvantaged and/or historically underrepresented group in the legal profession,” is listed as one of the scholarship’s eligibility criteria. It is unclear whether white Americans would be allowed to apply for the scholarship. The law firm did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Applicants are also expected to answer questions about what Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) means to them and the obstacles to greater DEI in law schools. Winston & Strawn believes DEI is a “high priority” and touts its recruitment programs targeting individuals from diverse backgrounds.
“Our vision is to cultivate a culture where all talented contributors can have, and can see, a path to long-term success. We back this up with measurable, high-impact goals, and numerous recruitment, retention, and advancement initiatives for our women, racial/ethnic minority, and LGBTQ+ attorneys and professional staff,” the firm’s website states.
A conservative law group, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), is suing two big law firms for similar diversity fellowships, claiming that they violate federal civil rights law by excluding certain applicants because of their race. AAER cites Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gives people “full and equal benefits of all laws” in its lawsuit against Democratic law firm Perkins Coie and financial law firm Morrison & Foerster.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that race-based college admissions criteria violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause. Corporate America has responded to the Supreme Court’s decision by reducing DEI language in the workplace and laying off diversity officers, according to Bloomberg Law.
Conservative groups have filed also lawsuits against corporations such as Amazon and Comcast for violating anti-discrimination laws by explicitly offering programs and benefits to applicants from diverse backgrounds. More than a dozen Republican attorneys general warned businesses in a July letter that race-based hiring practices are illegal under state and federal laws.
“Racial discrimination is both immoral and illegal. Such race-based employment and contracting violates both state and federal law, and as the chief law enforcement officers of our respective states we intend to enforce the law vigorously,” the letter reads. “If you choose not to do so, know that you will be held accountable— sooner rather than later — for your decision to continue treating people differently because of the color of their skin.”