Top US law firms are warning law schools that they will not hire graduates who engage in “discrimination or harassment” against Jewish students on campuses that have been roiled by the Israel-Hamas war.
Two dozen white-shoe firms — among them Skadden Arps, Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Paul Weiss — attached their names to the Wednesday letter sent to 14 elite law schools whose graduates are among the most sought-after job candidates on the market.
The prestigious firms “have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses,” according to the letter, earlier reported on by the New York Times.
Joe Shenker, senior chair at Sullivan & Cromwell, spearheaded the letter, whose other signatories include Wachtel, Lipton, Debevoise & Plimpton and Davis Polk. The latter firm made headlines last month when it rescinded job offers to law graduates from Columbia and Harvard over statements they had signed that condemned Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks.
The letter was prompted by the fact that school administrators “were late to getting that Jewish students are actually scared — they feel threatened, and they feel betrayed,” Shenker told the Times.
The letter demands that universities “provide your students with the tools and guidance to engage in the free exchange of ideas, even on emotionally charged issues, in a manner that affirms the values we all hold dear and rejects unreservedly that which is antithetical to those values.”
College administrators have come under fire for failing to swiftly and explicitly condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault which left at least 1,400 Israelis dead and scores of others wounded or in captivity.
Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager who founded Pershing Square Capital Management, lamented the fact that “we need to rely on law firms and corporations to police antisemitism on campus,” calling the state of affairs “pathetic.”
“Every one of these universities, law schools and business schools have made massive recent investments in DEI initiatives, staff and faculty. Where are they? What are they doing?” Ackman wrote on his X social media account on Thursday.
The Harvard alum has been vocal in denouncing students at the university whose groups co-signed a letter that blamed Israel for the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas.
Ackman enlisted the support of at least a dozen business executives in tech, finance, and other sectors who have pledged not to hire students whose organizations were signatories to the letter.
In recent days, a viral video surfaced on social media showing an individual identified as Ibrahim Bharmal, an editor of Harvard Law Review, and other pro-Palestinian protesters accosting a student on campus during a demonstration.
The Post has sought comment from Bharmal.
Ackman took to X and demanded that Harvard suspend Bharmal and the other students seen in the video surrounding another individual and obstructing his way.
The Post has also sought comment from Harvard.
In the days following the Hamas attack, Ryna Workman, the president of New York University’s Student Bar Association, told the group of aspiring lawyers that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.”
Hours later, the law firm Winston & Strawn rescinded its job offer to Workman, saying that the comments “profoundly conflict” with its values.
Three law students at Harvard and Columbia had job offers from Davis Polk rescinded last month after the law firm found that they held leadership roles in organizations that blamed Israel for the Hamas attacks.
The law firm later said it was reconsidering the decision after two of the students said they were not aware that their groups had authorized their names to be attached as signatories to the letters.
Cornell University announced that it was canceling classes on Friday after one of the school’s students allegedly made antisemitic threats against Jews on campus.
The cancellation of classes comes days after federal authorities arrested Patrick Dai, a junior at the Ithaca-based school, for allegedly posting threats of violence on social media.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
