Former U.S. Solicitor General Complains That Biglaw Adjusts Too Well To Its Woke Clientele – Above the Law

Sure
is
tough
working
a
Biglaw
job.
It
isn’t
all
wearing
fancy
suits
and
making
$250k+
a
year
—
some
of
the
stuff
you
have
to
deal
with
is
anathema
to
a
peaceful
work
environment.
Not
the
long
hours
or
the
stealth
layoffs
your
firm
is
gaslighting
you
into
believing
are
your
fault.
No,
we
all
know
what
the
real
problem
is:


wokeness.
From
Law.com:

BigLaw
is
too
woke,
according
to
a
former
U.S.
solicitor
general
who
left
Kirkland
&
Ellis
in
a
dispute
over
representation
of
gun
clients.

Appearing
on
a
Saturday
panel
at
an
event
for
the
Federalist
Society,
former
U.S.
Solicitor
General
Paul
Clement
said
large
law
firms
have
a
“very
serious”
problem
of
liberal
bias, Law360 reports.

Clement
and
another
Kirkland
&
Ellis
lawyer,
Erin
Murphy, left
earlier
this
year.
They
started
a
new
appellate
boutique,
Clement
&
Murphy.
Clement
said
at
the
time
that
Kirkland
had
offered
him
a
choice:
Drop
his
Second
Amendment
clients,
or
withdraw
from
the
law
firm.

Other
panelists
agreed
that
partners
at
large
law
firms
are
more
liberal
than
conservative.
But
they
said
there
is
still
room
for
conservatives
in
BigLaw,
according
to
Law360.

A
thing
we
should
remember
about
the
operative
word
here,
too,
is
that
it
is
relative.
Considering
that

FedSoc
recently
ousted
a
co-founder
because
he
dared
to
claim
that
racism
exists,
color
me
suspicious.

FedSoc
—
right-wing
chicken
slinging
cult
that
it
is
—
calling
anything
too
“woke”
is
like
a
police
officer
saying
they
smell
“too
much
weed”
in
a
car
or
a
Klan
member
saying
that
there
are
too
many
Jews
nearby;
it
applies
just
as
well
to
when
there
is
a
lot
of
the
offending
presence
as
when
there
is
none.
Remember
when
Yale’s
FedSoc
called

backlash
against
a
“Trap
House”
party
making
fun
of
women
and
Black
people
too
woke?
Or

when
FedSoc
women
were
shocked
to
discover
that
they
weren’t
getting
fair
treatment
from
their
collogues?
It
should
be
no
surprise
that
Fedsoc
is
against
“wokeness,”
be
it
treating
women
and
Blacks
with
respect,
given
that
their
holy
grail
of
legalistic
interpretation
goes
back
to
when
both
those
categories
of
people
were
considered
objects.
At
this
point,
if
you
aren’t
being
called
woke
by
some
FedSoc
member,
I’d
like
to
know
where
you
were
on
January
6th,
2021.

The
response
to
“things
are
getting
too
woke
in
here”
should
not
be
“Hey,
we
still
allow
conservative
opinions
in
Biglaw!”
It
is
too
easy
of
an
equivocation
between
being
conservative
and
being
against
common
sense
—
Steven
Calabresi’s
recent
and
modest
recognition
that
a
country
that
has
hosted
400
years
of
chattel
slavery
may
have
a
bit
of
racist
residue
left
resulting
in
a
purge
is
proof
of
that.
When
you
hear
things
like
this:

“Part
of
the
phenomenon
is
that
big
law
firms
are
becoming
increasingly
woke
because
their
clients
are
becoming
increasingly
woke,”
Clement
said.

The
response
should
be
that
values
matter.
A
workplace
isn’t
necessarily
hostile
because
it
doesn’t
defer
to
your
wish
for
less
minorities
or
more
opportunities
to
defend
makers
of
rifles
that
kill
children.
It
isn’t
a
cardinal
sin
for
a
business
to…
adapt
to
its
clientele.
Free
markets,
right?
May
mean
your
services
would
be
better
met
working
somewhere
else,
though.
And
remember,
the
people
doing
all
this
complaining
about
blackballing
are
very
well
connected.
Just
read
the
article
—
complaints
about
wokeness
aside,
Clement
is
still
in
the
position
to
be
able
to
offer
folks
jobs
working
with
him.
Trust
me
—
there
are
a
bunch
of
people
grinning
and
bearing
at
complaints
about
“encroaching
wokeness”
because
they
don’t
have
nearly
as
much
job
security
as
the
complainers.

BigLaw
Is
Too
Woke,
Former
Solicitor
General
Clement
Tells
Federalist
Society
[Law.com]

---

Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
 He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.