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It Will Be Harder To Hold People Like ‘The Wig Ripper’ Accountable Once This Court Has Its Way – Above the Law

It
is
very
easy
to
get
the
feeling
that
the
legal
industry
is
an
old
boys’
club.
It
especially
doesn’t
help
when
you
hear
a
bunch
of
3rd
or
4th
generations
talking
about
how
they
got
an
associate
position
at
a

white
shoe
firm

while
you’re
stuck
trying
to
figure
out
what
all
the
industry
jargon
still
means.
One
of
the
things
about
old
boys’
clubs
is
that
there
are
uplifted
traditions
that
are
usually
maintained
by
others
having
to
bear
the
weight
of
them.
For
example,
you
can
have
all
the
panels
about
how
hate
speech
is
good
for
democracy
all
you
want,
but
as
soon
as
someone
gives
a
graduation
speech
in
favor
of
Palestine
and
against
the
police,
those
same
people
try
to
get
a
school’s
funding
pulled
over
hate
speech.

We
are
at
a
turning
point

somewhere
around
the
eve
of
affirmative
action
being
overturned.
Several
anti-discriminatory
laws
actually,


303
Creative

and
the
coming
cases
like
it,
will
drive
wedges
between
protections
minorities
once
had
and
the
ones
they
no
longer
will.
And
with
them,
unless
there
are
some
cultural
or
legal
measures
taken
to
prevent
it,
the
legal
environment
is
likely
to
slip
backward
toward
the
days
when
you
could
harass
and
exclude
whomever
you
wanted.
While
the
risk
of
those
abuses
has
never
left,
they’ve
been
far
less
brazen.
If
the
wig-snatching
incident
involving
former
Leader
Berkon
Colao
and
Silverstein
LLP
employee
Anthony
P.
Orlich
happened
just
a
couple
of
years
ago,
the
response
probably
would
have
been
that
what
attorneys
do
off
the
clock
is
their
own
business.
Sure,
there
would
have
been
an
understanding
that
the
firm
owns
your
weekdays
and
weekends,
but
as
accountable
as
burnout
culture
is
to
firms
and
partners,
not
much
was
really
expected
of
employee
accountability
toward
non-clients.
Today,
some
work
emails
of

partners
brazenly
discriminating
against
women,
minorities,
Jews,
and
the
LGBTQ
community
results
in
them
stepping
down
from
a
freshly
minted
firm
.
Will
that
same
social
pressure
exist
in
a
couple
of
years
from
now?
Based
on
which
laws?
Do
you
really
think
a
court
that
has
upheld
racial
gerrymandering
and
dismantled
affirmative
action
will
really
care
that
much
about
discrimination
cases
once
even
more
civil
liberties
have
been
rolled
back?

It
is
one
thing
to
see
some
asshole
try
and
rip
some
random
person’s
wig
off
like
he
didn’t
learn
the
elements
of
battery
like
the
rest
of
us.
And
just
in
case
you
don’t
intuitively
know
how
much
force
you’d
have
to
do
what
he
did,
here
is
a
clear
explanation
from
the
person
it
happened
to:

I
am
thankful
that
Lizzy
Ash
was
taken
seriously
and
her
alleged
batterer
faced
consequences.
But
it
also
makes
me
wonder
how
often
this
happens

along
with
what
a
world
would
look
like
where
there
were
not
legal
protections
in
place
that
penalize
discriminating
against
people
in
times
of
need.
The
end
of
affirmative
action
and
the
start
of
cases
that
secure
the
right
to
discriminate
are
about
more
than
college
attendance
and
not
having
to
help
gay
people
plan
weddings.
It
is
the
end
of
a
legal
framework
that
offers
accountability
and
security
to
people
that
would
otherwise
have
been
disenfranchised.



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.