Law Firm Nixing Job Offer Shows ‘Right to Condemn’ Israel Views

Winston & Strawn’s reversal of a job offer for a law student who blamed Israel for deadly Hamas attacks shows the risks future lawyers take by publicly adopting controversial positions.

People have a right to express their First Amendment views even though “I am saddened and outraged by those who would defend what Hamas did,” Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of University of California Berkeley Law School, said in an email.

“I—and others—have the right to condemn those views,” Chemerinsky said. “And employers have the right to decide that they don’t want to employ individuals who express those views.”

Winston & Strawn’s decision to renege the job offer shows the consequences students face over their actions on social media and other forums, said Stephanie Biderman , a partner at legal recruiting firm Major Lindsey & Africa.

“As a lawyer, you want to support freedom of speech,” Biderman said. “But at the end of the day this is a private law firm and they can do whatever they want.”

Perkins Coie DEI Suit Ended by Anti-Affirmative Action Group

An anti-affirmative action group ended litigation against Perkins Coie after the firm opened its diversity fellowship program to all first-year law students.

“The American Alliance for Equal Rights is satisfied that Perkins Coie’s racially discriminatory fellowship program has been eliminated and replaced,” group president Edward Blum said in a statement.

The lawsuit’s dismissal comes two days after Perkins argued the suit was “moot” because of the fellowship program changes. Blum’s two-year old group dropped a similar suit against Morrison Foerster on Oct. 6 after that firm changed its diversity, equity and inclusion fellowship.

“We are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Perkins Coie managing partner Bill Malley said in a statement. “As a firm, we have a longstanding and deeply rooted commitment to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace and legal profession. Our commitment remains steadfast.”

Davis Polk Advises ExxonMobil on $60 Billion Purchase of Rival Pioneer

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP advised ExxonMobil on its all-stock $59.5 billion acquisition of shale rival Pioneer Natural Resources.

The deal, which is one of the largest in a slow market so far this year, will increase ExxonMobil’s reliance on fossil fuel production. It comes after Chevron, Exxon’s biggest domestic competitor, bought Denver-based PDC Energy earlier this year.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted as legal adviser to Pioneer. Fried Frank advised Goldman Sachs as financial adviser to Pioneer.

The Davis Polk team was led New York deals lawyer Louis Goldberg, who co-chairs the firm’s mergers and acquisitions group. Fried Frank partners Philip Richter and Roy Tannenbaum steered the firm’s work on the transaction.

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