A legal fellowship that told sponsor firms it existed to help low-income and first-generation law students has been filling its ranks with graduates of elite boarding schools, former Big Law paralegals, and children of wealthy professionals, and now faces a federal false-advertising complaint. The Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Law Fellowship selected 58 students for its […] The post DEI law fellowship promised to help 'underserved' students — then accepted boarding-school graduates and consultants' kids appeared first on American Almanac .
A legal fellowship that told sponsor firms it existed to help low-income and first-generation law students has been filling its ranks with graduates of elite boarding schools, former Big Law paralegals, and children of wealthy professionals, and now faces a federal false-advertising complaint. The Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Law Fellowship selected 58 students for its 2026 cohort. The Washington Free Beacon identified 50 of them through LinkedIn profiles and found a roster that looks nothing like the program's marketing pitch. Among the fellows: a graduate of Loomis Chaffee, the Connecticut boarding school that charges between $60,000 and $80,000 a year; a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy, whose alumni include two U.S.…Open
The law firm Paul Weiss led the legal resistance against President Trump. Then it led a sudden retreat across the legal industry. A Times investigation examined how it caved to White House pressure.
Artificial intelligence is wiping out some entry-level work that trains the next generation of elite lawyers. Why it matters: Big Law's entire business model depends on armies of junior associates learning on the job. If AI erases that rung, the profession faces a long-term talent crisis. The big picture: The legal profession's most important classroom, the early-career grind of junior and summer associates, is quietly reshaping, as the path to partnership is being rewritten in real-time. - Firms are racing to "extract the knowledge of their lawyers" and embed it in AI workflows, client portals and self-service tools, Stanford Law professor David Freeman Engstrom tells Axios. - That could mean "getting ready for a world in which you…
Artificial intelligence is wiping out some entry-level work that trains the next generation of elite lawyers. Why it matters: Big Law's entire business model depends on armies of junior associates learning on the job. If AI erases that rung, the profession faces a long-term talent crisis. The big picture: The legal profession's most important classroom, the early-career grind of junior and summer associates, is quietly reshaping, as the path to partnership is being rewritten in real-time. - Firms are racing to "extract the knowledge of their lawyers" and embed it in AI workflows, client portals and self-service tools, Stanford Law professor David Freeman Engstrom tells Axios. - That could mean "getting ready for a world in which you…Open
The Department of Justice moved to dismiss its civil case against four leading law firms that won rulings against President Trump's executive orders targeting them for employing or representing his critics. The big picture: The DOJ's motion to dismiss its lawsuit appeals against Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey comes after other prestigious law firms caught in Trump's crosshairs agreed to provide almost $1 billion worth of legal work to the president instead of going to court. What they're saying: The DOJ's decision to withdraw its appeals "makes permanent the rulings of four federal judges that the executive orders targeting law firms ... were unconstitutional," Jenner & Block said in a statement Monday.…
The Department of Justice moved to dismiss its civil case against four leading law firms that won rulings against President Trump's executive orders targeting them for employing or representing his critics. The big picture: The DOJ's motion to dismiss its lawsuit appeals against Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey comes after other prestigious law firms caught in Trump's crosshairs agreed to provide almost $1 billion worth of legal work to the president instead of going to court. What they're saying: The DOJ's decision to withdraw its appeals "makes permanent the rulings of four federal judges that the executive orders targeting law firms ... were unconstitutional," Jenner & Block said in a statement Monday.…Open
The decision comes after nine law firms made deals with the Trump administration last year, including Paul Weiss, in order to avoid a legal battle over the executive orders.