All-White New Partners Shake Legal World
The New York Times ran a story on Sunday about the large law firm Paul, Weiss’ new partner class, writing:
The post appeared on LinkedIn in early December: Paul, Weiss, one of the country’s most prominent and profitable law firms, said it was “pleased to announce” its new partner class.
In the image, 12 lawyers looked out at the world, grinning.
What followed, however, was nothing to smile about. In short order, people across the industry began to comment that all of the faces were white, and only one was a woman’s.
Looking at Balch & Bingham’s proud announcement this month of promoting 5 attorneys to partner, all of them are white, too, and like Paul, Weiss, only one was a woman (pictured above).
The New York Times notes a harsh reality:
But many of these young lawyers described a complicated reality, in which young minorities are welcomed at the firm and then frequently sidelined. Some complained that people in power held them to different standards than their white male peers, or punished them more severely for mistakes.
After the criminal trial, Balch & Bingham re-hired Irving Jones, Jr., an African-American attorney who worked under convicted felon and ex-partner Joel I. Gilbert and testified about how he ghost wrote letters and proclamations for Gilbert. Jones also infiltrated meetings of the environmental group GASP and monitored their social media activity.
Federal authorities were stunned to see one of the last witnesses to testify in the criminal trial rejoin the embattled firm. And no one views Jones’ hire was for the sake of “diversity” or inclusion.
Now public corporations are taking a serious look, through a growing online movement, at diversity at the law firms they hire.
Diversity at Balch & Bingham is one of many issues the firm must confront. Clients will also learn that allegedly bad legal advice caused David Roberson, the corporate executive at Drummond Company to be indicted and convicted.
In addition Balch & Bingham’s targeting of poor Black children in North Birmingham with free coat drives won’t help the firm improve their reputation.
Then comes the criminal trial against two Balch stooges who allegedly broke the law.
And finally, the Newsome Conspiracy Case—and a foolish fight to the death—demonstrates unequivocally that Balch & Bingham appears not to respect best practices or sound settlements.
Who would ever want to involve themselves with a law firm that eventually caused their top clients to be sued in a civil RICO suit, saw a partner sentenced to five years in prison for bribery, allegedly provided bad legal advice to a client, has two former consultants facing criminal charges, and shows no contrition whatsoever with the African-American community in North Birmingham?
