Biglaw Caves: Morrison Foerster Changes Diversity Fellowship Criteria Following Lawsuit

// Back in August, Edward Blum, the conservative legal strategist behind the recent Supreme Court case that dismantled college affirmative action, launched an attack on Biglaw efforts to diversify the profession. Fresh off his Supreme Court victory, Blum founded The American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group which then sued both Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster for their diversity fellowships.

Now it looks like MoFo blinked. As reported by Reuters, the criteria for the firm’s Keith Wetmore 1L Fellowship for Excellence, Diversity, and Inclusion — the program at the heart of the lawsuit — has changed.

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Before Blum’s group sued on Aug. 22 in federal court in Miami, Morrison & Foerster’s website said the fellowship was intended for law students “who are members of historically underrepresented groups in the legal industry.”

But that language is gone now, and the flyer now instead says applicants just need to be able to “bring a diverse perspective to the firm as a result of your adaptability, cultural fluency, resilience, and life experiences.”

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Oof, this change  was made a week after Blum filed the lawsuit against the firm. Other institutions are experimenting with how to care about diversity without talking about diversity in the wake of the Court’s decision, but this approach just feels like it opens the door for “viewpoint diversity” applicants. It’s a trope already trotted out as part of the effort to kill affirmative action.

MoFo has not yet commented on the change to its fellowship criteria or the lawsuit.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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Biglaw, Edward Blum, MoFo, Morrison & Foerster, The Jabot