Citing its ‘value system,’ Davis Polk rescinds 3 job offers over groups’ anti-Israel statements

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Citing its 'value system,' Davis Polk rescinds…

Law Firms Citing its 'value system,' Davis Polk rescinds 3 job offers over groups' anti-Israel statements

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 18, 2023, 9:23 am CDT

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Davis Polk & Wardwell has rescinded job offers to three law students who participated in or had leadership positions in groups that issued statements siding with Hamas in its attack on Israeli citizens. Photo from Shutterstock.

Davis Polk & Wardwell has rescinded job offers to three law students who participated in or had leadership positions in groups that issued statements siding with Hamas in its attack on Israeli citizens.

Two of the law students had leadership positions in groups that signed a letter at Columbia University, the New York Times reports. The third law student was affiliated with the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups. The groups all blamed Israel for the Hamas attack.

In a statement, Davis Polk said the views expressed in certain statements by the student groups “are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system.”

Law.com and Bloomberg Law also have coverage.

The law firm indicated, however, that it was reevaluting its decision regarding two students who said they didn’t authorize the anti-Israel statements, according to the New York Times.

Several other law students have contacted Davis Polk to inform the firm that they didn’t agree with anti-Israel statements issued by groups in which they had memberships, a spokeswoman told the New York Times.

Davis Polk pulled back the job offers following a similar decision by Winston & Strawn. That firm rescinded the job offer for New York University School of Law student Ryna Workman, the president of the NYU Law Student Bar Association.

Workman had claimed in a message in a student bar publication that “Palestinian resistance” was necessary because of Israel’s “regime of state-sanctioned violence.”

Workman told Law.com that the focus should be on the people of Gaza.

“Everyone who cares about human life should be doing everything they can to end this escalation and prevent further genocide,” Workman said.

The NYU Law Student Bar Association board has initiated proceedings to remove Workman as president.

Workman said in a press release “my message came across as insensitive to the suffering of Israelis during a time of crisis, and that is not what I intended.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is supporting Workman in a letter to the NYU School of Law, according to Law.com and the Volokh Conspiracy.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said the law school had suggested that it may be investigating Workman.

“Workman’s reported statements,” the letter said, “are the very sort of passionate, core political speech one might expect on a college campus. They are wholly protected even if other students found them offensive or even hateful.”

See also:

“Law firms ask Tel Aviv lawyers to work at home; ABA president condemns Hamas attacks”

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