A misconduct survey leak, Arnold & Porter poaches from Baker McKenzie, and the ABA seeks opinion on the LSAT
Reuters Legal
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?? Good morning. In today's Legal File: The American Bar Association has asked the public whether standardized admission tests should be eliminated. D.C. federal courts plan to investigate who leaked a confidential survey of employees detailing allegations of gender discrimination. Karen Leetzow of the U.S. Soccer Federation discusses how she managed equal pay agreements by men's and women's national teams. Arnold & Porter hired Thomas Kruse from Baker McKenzie in Houston.
The public will get the opportunity to weigh in on whether the American Bar Association should eliminate a requirement that law schools use a standardized test, like the Law School Admission Test, to assess applicants.
The ABA's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which handles law school accreditation, voted during a Chicago meeting Friday to circulate for comment a proposal to drop a rule that law schools use a "valid and reliable" admissions test.
Supporters of the testing requirement say it keeps weaker students from wasting time and money with law school. Detractors have said such testing hurts efforts to diversify legal education and the profession, citing disparities in LSAT scores across racial groups.
Federal court officials plan to investigate who leaked a confidential survey of employees detailing allegations of gender discrimination, bullying and other misconduct by some federal district and appellate court judges in Washington, D.C.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a statement on Friday said the leak warranted an investigation after The Washington Post reported on the survey on Monday.
The Washington Post reported that while 89% of respondents rated the courts positively as workplaces, the survey included 57 reports from employees who claimed to have experienced problematic behavior and 134 who said they witnessed misconduct or heard about it.
Srinivasan said the D.C. Circuit and the capital's district court launched the survey in 2021 to "better understand our employees’ workplace experiences," and employees participated "on the understanding their responses would be kept confidential."
“A little bit daunting.” That’s how Karen Leetzow described the challenges she faced in mid-2020 when she stepped in as chief legal officer for the U.S. Soccer Federation.
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The federation, which is the sport's official governing body in the U.S., had stumbled badly in response to an equal pay and gender discrimination lawsuit by current and former members of the women’s national team. The public relations fallout was savage, and the federation’s president and top lawyer had resigned.
She scored a major win this week when the women’s and men’s national teams both agreed to unprecedented collective bargaining agreements that equalize pay. The agreements feature what U.S. Soccer calls "identical economic terms" and an even split of all FIFA World Cup prize money.
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer said Monday that it has hired the head of Baker McKenzie’s Texas litigation and government investigations practice as a partner in Houston.
Thomas Kruse, who represents energy, technology and medical clients, will be a member of Arnold & Porter's complex litigation practice.
Kruse said he was drawn to the firm because of its regulatory, government compliance, trade, IP and investigations practices.
"[These practices] are very relevant for a lot of my clients because of this global [energy] transition, and with Houston being 'the energy capital of the world,' that's what I need right now," he said.
Kruse also said changes in the energy industry, especially the focus on sources that won't be affected by unstable supply chains, have been increasing the amount of legal work in Houston.
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