It was only last week that law students at Harvard Law School organized a campaign urging fellow students interested in a career in Biglaw to #DumpKirkland. The boycott was designed to protest Kirkland & Ellis’s use of mandatory arbitration agreements in employment contracts, which were designed to force employees out of courthouses whether they’d experienced discrimination, sexual harassment, or any other issue.
Today, the firm has announced they are doing away with mandatory arbitration agreements for associates and summer associates. While the firm’s announcement is couched in terms of a periodic review of Kirkland’s practices, the timing sure doesn’t feel like a coincidence. As soon as they began receiving pressure, they caved.
As Vail Kohnert-Yount, one of the students behind the protest, tweeted out this morning, it’s a nice little capper on the upcoming holiday celebration:
Legal Is Changing. And NeoSummit Is Where The Future Is Being Built.
Legal and operational leaders are gathering May 6–7 in Fort Lauderdale to confront the questions the industry hasn't answered—with a keynote from Amanda Knox setting the tone.
This year, I’m thankful for law firms that know what they’re up against!!
Read the firm’s announcement below:
[pdfjs-viewer url=”https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/11/kirkland-arbit-memo.pdf”]
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).