Hope for Humanity

A group of law students are are organizing to create a list of law firms that are caving to Donald Trump. 

The implication, of course is that this list will be used to allow graduating lawyers to be will not be applying to these firms: 

The day after Donald Trump’s election last year, three Georgetown Law students started a political movement to brace for impact.

The students texted each other, started organizing, and eventually discovered the ability to perform a simple act to put the world’s wealthiest and most powerful law firms on the defensive.

They created a spreadsheet.

After Trump signed executive orders singling out law firms for political retribution, the students recorded BigLaw’s responses in a document they titled “Legal Industry Responses to Fascist Attacks Tracker.”

The Google spreadsheet currently names more than 800 firms, assigning them to one of five stark categories: “Caved to Administration,” “Complying in Advance,” “Other Negative Action,” “Stood Up Against Administration’s Attacks,” or “No Response.”

The document started out a resource to help fellow Georgetown Law students make informed decisions about potential future employers.

In case you are wondering, there has been an impact on where recent law school graduates are applying:

………

Forbes first picked up on a trend of students turning down the possibility of six-figure salaries from the likes of Skadden Arps, Paul Weiss, Milbank, and Willkie, Farr and Gallagher, which all entered into settlements providing the Trump administration with tens of millions of dollars in pro bono legal services. One Geogetown first-year law student (1L) interviewed for the story reportedly skipped a Skadden interview. (The firms did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.)

Politico then reported that these individual choices resonated industry-wide, speaking to students, recruiters, and partners at major law firms.

I am stunned, but for the first time in a long time, this a good thing.

To quote Ann Frank, "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."