Posted by David Bernstein: Illegal Fellowship at Kirkland and Ellis?: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_11_12-2006_11_18.shtml#1163523159
Kirkland and Ellis awards a "diversity" fellowship at many of the nation's leading law schools (see [1]this announcement for the one at Yale). The fellowship seems to consist of a Summer associate position at K & E, plus a $15,000 stipend during one's third year of law school. Only non-whites are eligible. If K & E wishes to use its resources for this program, it's okay with me. It doesn't do anything to increase the overall pool of minority attorneys from disadvantaged groups, which would be a more philanthropic endeavor but given the pressures clients are putting on law firms to staff projects with minority attorneys, it seems smart from K & E's perspective to run a program like this to attract help attract the cream of the crop. But I have to wonder whether this program was run past K & E's employment lawyers. I'm not a Title VII expert, but I'm pretty sure that any sort of quota for minorities in employment is illegal, absent very special circumstances. And K & E's "minority fellowhsip" program amounts to a 100% quota for minorities for the relevant positions. Put another way, while race may be used as a factor under precedents from the 1980s, I don't think that any position can be reserved by race. Clients may demand minority attorneys, but race cannot be a bone fide occupational qualification under current law, as I understand it. Am I missing something? I'll happily update the post to cite the precedent that makes this program lawful, if it exists. Hat tip: [2]Law firm diversity blog. References Visible links 1. http://fellowship.kirkland.com/info.aspx?s=14 2. http://www.misterthorne.org/blog_lfd/ Hidden links: 3. http://www.misterthorne.org/blog_lfd/ _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
