CUNY Law top for government and public interest jobs, EEOC updates workplace bias guidelines after 25 years, Dentons and Boies Schiller sued and more?
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal news:
?? For government and public interest jobs, these law schools are tops
The City University of New York School of Law has retained its position as the top pipeline into public interest and government law jobs, a Reuters analysis found.
CUNY Law, as the Queens school is known as, sent more than 55% of its 2023 juris doctors into those jobs within 10 months of graduation—more than 10 percentage points higher than any other school, according to employment data released last week by the American Bar Association. Among the school’s 206 graduates, 88 took public interest jobs, while 26 went into government positions, according to the ABA. CUNY Law also posted the highest percentage of graduates in those jobs?in 2022 .
Next was the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, with nearly 43.75% of 2023 graduates going into government or public interest jobs, followed by Albany Law School at 36.36%.
The ABA data show that the JD class of 2023 graduated into a strong job market . Among the 34,934 newly minted JDs last year, 85.6% landed full-time, permanent jobs within 10 months of leaving campus that either require bar passage or for which a JD provides an advantage. That’s the highest percentage in the past decade. There were 863 fewer JD graduates in 2023 than in 2022, meaning there were fewer people competing for jobs.
Overall, 11.1% of 2023’s JDs nationwide went into government jobs, while 8.9% took public interest positions. Government jobs include positions in local, state, and federal entities as well as the military, but do not include judicial clerkships. Public interest jobs include public defenders, labor unions, and positions at organizations funded by the Legal Services Corp.
?? EEOC says workplace bias laws cover bathrooms, pronouns, abortion
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday said employers refusing to use transgender workers' preferred pronouns and barring them from using bathrooms that match their gender identity amounts to unlawful workplace harassment under federal anti-discrimination law.
The EEOC?updated its enforcement guidance on workplace harassment for the first time in 25 years, including to reflect a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that anti-bias laws cover LGBTQ workers, after an earlier attempt stalled during the Trump administration.
The commission in the new guidance also addressed the rise of remote work and said that discriminating against employees based on their decisions to have abortions or use contraception is a form of sex discrimination.
The guidance is not legally binding, but lays out a blueprint for how the EEOC will enforce anti-bias laws and can be cited in court to back up legal arguments.
“We felt we really needed to lay out the contours of the law and where it stands,”?said EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows.
The Democrat-led commission approved the guidance in a 3-2 vote on Friday, with Republican Commissioners Andrea Lucas and Keith Sonderling dissenting, a spokesman for the agency said.
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?? Dentons, Boies Schiller sued over failed Senegal power plant deal
Law firms Dentons US and Boies Schiller Flexner have been hit with a lawsuit demanding $900 million over accusations that the firms misled a client for years about the enforceability of a contract with Senelec, Senegal's state-owned electric power company.
The lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan federal court by a Massachusetts businessman and the energy companies he owns, alleges Dentons and Boies Schiller and several of their attorneys engaged in "wholesale acts of fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, perjury" and other violations.
The plaintiffs hired Dentons in 2012 as they negotiated with Senelec over the development of a "large energy generation facility," the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs negotiated a power purchasing agreement with Senelec in 2012, the complaint said, but the agreement was never approved by Senelec's board. For years, the plaintiffs' former lawyers at Dentons and later Boies Schiller insisted that the agreement was valid and enforceable, the lawsuit alleged.
A Boies Schiller spokesperson said the lawsuit has no merit and the firm is "confident that it will be resolved quickly."
A spokesperson with Dentons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the allegations.
?? Democratic AGs can defend SEC climate disclosure rule
A U.S. appeals court on Monday ruled that 19 Democratic attorneys general can defend a new Biden administration rule that would require public companies to report climate-related risks against legal challenges by Republican-led states and industry groups.
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the group, led by the attorneys general for Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, to intervene in?consolidated litigation ?that seeks to block the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s March regulations.
The?first-of-its-kind rule ?aims to standardize public company disclosures about greenhouse gas emissions, weather-related risks and how they are preparing for the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The 8th Circuit was chosen via lottery on March 22 to hear nine lawsuits challenging the rule including those filed by 25 Republican attorneys general, energy industry companies and business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They have argued that the disclosure requirements amount to back-door environmental regulations that go beyond the SEC’s legal authority.
The Democratic attorneys general said in a brief filed April 3 that they have significant interests in defending the SEC's rule because the disclosures will give their states better information as they manage over a combined quarter of a trillion dollars in public funds, including pensions.
They said the SEC may have a similar position in the litigation but cannot adequately represent their interests in court, since they have a direct financial interest in the outcome and the SEC does not.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great day!
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