Perkins Coie, Morrison Foerster Sued Over Diversity Programs

Edward Blum’s newest anti-affirmative action group sued Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster, alleging that diversity fellowships at the firms are unlawful in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning affirmative action.

“This kind of rank discrimination was never lawful, even before SFFA v. Harvard held that colleges cannot use race in admissions,” the suit alleges.

Blum founded Students for Fair Admissions, which won in the Supreme Court against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, in which the justices overturned affirmative action in admissions. Blum’s newest vehicle, The American Alliance for Equal Rights, filed the lawsuits against the international firms over fellowships aimed at hiring diverse candidates. The suit asks the respective courts to permanently bar the firms’ current diversity fellowships.

Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster offer academic scholarships ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 as part of their fellowship programs. Fellowships that the firms started decades ago.

“Excluding students from these esteemed fellowships because they are the wrong race is unfair, polarizing and illegal,” Blum said in a statement. “Law firms that have racially-exclusive programs should immediately make them available to all applicants, regardless of their race.”

Singapore Lures US Law Firms With Trouble in China Growing

US law firms troubled by China’s security clampdown, Taiwan warnings, and civil liberties limits are turning to Singapore as a place to expand their Asia presence.

Firms tout the country’s easy access to other Asia nations and its attractiveness as a place to do business for corporate clients. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Cooley LLP, Baker Botts, McDermott Will & Emery, Greenberg Traurig, and Goodwin Procter have opened operations in Singapore since 2020.

“Singapore is the place now,” Greenberg Traurig Executive Chair Richard Rosenbaum said in an interview. “That’s where that business center has moved.”

Dentons on Aug. 9 said the firm will separate from a connected China operation to comply with data regulations while Orrick, Baker Botts, McDermott, and Vinson & Elkins have left at least one China office since 2020. Proskauer Rose announced in June it will close its Beijing office.

Singapore attracts firms with its independent institutions that provide legal services for international businesses, said Gerald Singham , who leads the Dentons operation in Southeast Asia. One example, he said, is the Singapore International Commercial Court, where companies can go for arbitration.

Drugmakers Tap Big Law Attorneys to Fight Medicare Price Program

Major drugmakers have assembled an army of top attorneys from the nation’s most prestigious firms to take down Medicare’s drug price negotiation program, hoping to take advantage of experience gained in health litigation, arguments before the Supreme Court, and policymaking inside the federal government.

Jones Day, King & Spalding and Covington & Burling LLP are among the major law firms behind seven lawsuits by drugmakers and major trade groups trying to block the Biden administration’s unprecedented drug price negotiation plan from going into effect. About 40 attorneys at different law firms are working on all of these cases.

The companies are leaning on their outside law firms’ “heavy hitters” said Andrew Twinamatsiko , associate director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute. “These are billion-dollar companies, and they’re able to afford the highest paid attorneys who have litigated before different courts, all the way to the Supreme Court,” Twinamatsiko said.

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