MAJOR US law firms are promoting practices aimed at overcoming objections to clients’ corporate diversity programs, while some firms battle backlash against their own diversity initiatives.
McGuireWoods, a law firm, announced on Wednesday (13) that it has assembled a special team to assist businesses in lowering their legal risk, citing “increased legal, shareholder, and other scrutiny of corporate equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) programs”.
The company announced that lawyers from its employment, education, corporate governance, and other teams will be involved in the endeavour, which will defend against lawsuits and shareholder actions and advise on government investigations related to diversity policies.
Virginia-based McGuireWoods is at least the third major US law firm after Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to establish a programme for clients facing such legal threats.
“Everyone wants to make sure they’re minimising risk”, said Amy Morrissey Turk, partner at McGuireWoods involved in the effort.
Conservative legislators and advocacy organisations have been encouraged to oppose diversity initiatives more generally in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities in June.
The need for legal counsel on how to develop business policies to withstand such difficulties has risen as a result.
However, EDI critics have started to focus more and more on big law firms themselves.
THE POST Office has become the latest retailer to remove gendered titles from enquiry forms in the UK.
As a result of a petition to remove the gendered titles, that was started last month by the LGBTQ+ advocacy organisation Include Mx via change.org, the Post Office decided remove titles from its general inquiry forms. Nearly 300 people have signed the petition.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We want to thank [Include Mx founder] Tom Pashby for the passion and dedication they have given this important cause. Mx titling is currently available for our travel, home and gadget insurance journeys.
“We regularly discuss this topic, and recently came to the decision to remove titling altogether from our forms to ensure inclusivity for all of our customers.”
Include Mx had requested to avoid excluding non-binary persons by only providing gendered titles Mr, Miss and Mrs, or academic titles, such as Dr on its general inquiry form.
*Mx (pronounced ‘mix’) is a gender-neutral alternative to gender-specific titles such as Mr, Mrs, Miss, and Ms.
THE BUFFALO Fire Department in the US is accused of having a culture of racism, discrimination, and nepotism, according to a new complaint filed this week in the New York State Supreme Court.
Mayor Byron Brown, Fire Commissioner William Renaldo, and other department heads, such as Battalion Chief Robert Bourgeois, who is in charge of the Fire Academy, are among the defendants named in the case.
The three plaintiffs are former recruits; a Black man, a Hispanic man and a Polish man in his 40s. They all claim to have experienced discrimination based on their race, ethnicity, or age.
According to one story, a Black recruit claimed a white fireman called him a racist slur.
Their claims are being backed by former Buffalo Fire Deputy Commissioner Shannon Street.
In a sworn affidavit, Street said “Throughout my career, I have observed systemic racism and politicization at the BFD Academy, which is charged with the training of new cadets. I have observed great preference being shown to people with family ties to the BFD, and worthy candidates drummed out of the Academy who were minorities and women and who were not politically connected.”
Street, who was appointed as Deputy Commissioner by Brown in 2018, said she met with the mayor in his office at City Hall.
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