The State Bar of Wisconsin has modified the parameters of a diversity program for law students after a conservative legal advocacy group sued in December, claiming the program discriminates based on race.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and the Wisconsin Bar on Thursday reached a partial settlement in the case that allows the bar’s Diversity Clerkship Program to continue with a new definition of diversity. That change will open the program to all first-year law students in good standing at Wisconsin’s two law schools and focus on “merit and diversity of viewpoint," according to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
State Bar Executive Director Larry Martin said in a Thursday statement that the diversity program will “continue to exist and to operate in its current form” with a new diversity definition.
The Diversity Clerkship Program provides 10-week paid summer positions at law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies after the first year of law school for 20 to 25 students annually.
The program previously defined diversity as “an inclusive concept that encompasses, among other things, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation and disability.” Under the new definition, diversity means “including people with differing characteristics, beliefs, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.”
Diversity programs have come under increasing attack ever since the U.S. Supreme Court last June banned affirmative action in college and university admissions.
A different group founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, who brought the Supreme Court affirmative action challenge, earlier this year sued law firms Winston & Strawn, Perkins Coie, and Morrison & Foerster over their diversity fellowship programs. Blum later dropped all three lawsuits after the firms altered their application criteria.
The partial settlement in the Wisconsin case does not address other allegations by plaintiff Daniel Suhr that the state bar is violating his free speech rights by using mandatory bar dues for activities that are not “germane.”
Read more:
Conservative group sues Wisconsin bar to block diversity clerkship program
Affirmative action opponent drops case over Winston & Strawn's diversity fellowship
