News Blog

Dewey and Leboeuf's diversity committee recently hosted a talk by Spike Lee as a part of the firm's annual Black history month celebration. As you can imagine, Spike doesn't just go around speaking at law firms, so this had to be arranged by someone with an inside connection. That someone was the now famous part-owner of The Source magazine, L. Londell McMillan. McMillan, who is a partner at Dewey, is one of Lee's attorneys.

The title of the talk was "The Role of Black Media in Shaping Race Relations in America." At one point Lee reportedly said: 'No nuclear bomb has influenced how people talk, how they dress, how they dance. Young kids in Africa, China, and Russia are not...mixing on a turntable because of a nuclear bomb . . . it's culture. That's where America gets it's power."

It's not everyday that a major law firm hosts a talk about hip-hop and race relations. I know some of us wish we worked at Dewey now.

Anyway, you can read the rest of the story here in the AmLaw Daily.

In recognition of Black History Month, we at JD Diversity have been seeking out information on the history of African-American attorneys. Today we stumbled upon an overview of the life and struggles of the first African-American female attorney, Charlotte E. Ray.

Ray, who was a Washington, D.C. native, graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1872 (she was only 22 years old at the time). She went on to open her own corporate law practice. However, she ended up closing the practice due to lack of business. She then became a teacher in New York City.

You can read all about her life in the following timeline compiled by the Stanford University Women's Legal History Project:

http://www.stanford.edu/group/WLHP/papers/CharlotteRay_timeline.pdf

Apparently the EEOC (the government agency responsible for enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws in the workplace) is busy at work. The agency's racial discrimination claim against J.C. Penney Corporation recently settled for $50,000.

J.C. Penney was charged with discriminating against Reinell Singh, an African American who worked as a greeter at J.C. Penney's Staten Island location in New York. The lawsuit stated that Singh's supervisor referred to her several times using racially offensive names and later fired her for racial reasons.

In addition to the $50,000 in compensatory damages to be paid to Singh, a three-year consent decree requires the adoption of a non-discrimination policy and complaint procedures, enjoins J.C. Penney from race discrimination or retaliation, requires posting of a notice about the EEOC and the lawsuit, mandates anti-discrimination training, requires distribution of a memorandum setting forth the requirements of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to all store employees, and mandates monitoring and reporting.

"In spite of advances since Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was enacted 44 years ago, race discrimination still remains one of the most pervasive problems in today's workplace," Spencer H. Lewis, director of the EEOC's New York District Office said. "Racial slurs must simply not be tolerated, and the EEOC will fight to eradicate any such discrimination from the workplace."

You can read more about the case (EEOC v. J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc., Civil Action No.06 5192) here.

Former Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP ("Fried, Frank") associate Julie E. Kamps, a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School ('98), filed a complaint yesterday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Kamps' complaint comes after mediation efforts failed about a month ago.

The complaint charges Fried, Frank with discrimination, harassment, and retaliation on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. According to Kamps, "Fried, Frank's diversity efforts stop at the door to the partnership," and Fried, Frank hires many of its female partners laterally, rather than developing female associates and promoting from within the firm.

Kamps also claims that the firm subjected her to a long course of adverse action, including firing her (though she still appears on the firm's website). "I have been mistreated by Fried, Frank and hope to shine a light on the differences between the firm's official policies and what the partners actually do," Kamps said.

Lately we've been looking for ways make your life easier, and we think we've found a pretty good one . . .

There's a new iPhone® application available for download that allows users to refer to and search through vital rules and resources from the iPhone® and the iPod Touch®. It's called "The Law Pod" and the following apps are currently available:

• Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
• Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
• Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
• Federal Rules of Bankruptcy

All of the apps are searchable, scrollable, and don't require an internet connection. Now you can look like you're just checking your phone in court or even mock trial, and then rattle off some obscure rule and look even more prepared! The Federal Rules of Evidence, and the U.S. Constitution are coming soon. Also coming soon is an application for the Blackberry.

We are particularly fond of this application because after-tax profits from its sale will be used to provide grants and scholarships to law students in need (funded by The Law Pod Foundation).

Apparently minority attorneys might be feeling the economic pinch much more than their white counterparts. Check out this report from the Minority Law Journal (MLJ) in which "comparing responses from young attorneys of different racial groups, [MLJ] found that African American associates, in particular, generally appeared to be in a less secure financial position. They, together with Hispanic lawyers, reported higher levels of debt and lower bonus compensation compared to their white and Asian American counterparts. More Black attorneys said that their workloads were too light, and overall they reported lower billable hours, even though they took less of the vacation that they're entitled to than other groups." MLJ additionally found that minorities were less likely to be satisfied with their positions within firms, and were more likely to fear layoffs. Let us know what you think about this.

With all of this talk about vetting or lack thereof (see the recent Senator Daschle withdrawal fiasco) we got to thinking about one of the most important vetting processes to which you will be subjected. That is the dreaded ‘Character and Fitness' investigation. Although it sounds spooky (I think some scary music just started playing) it's really not that bad.

Check out our tips on how to prepare for the investigation here in the Student Corner.