Rev. Al Sharpton rips Skadden law firm over lack of diversity - New York Daily News

The Rev. Al Sharpton laced into an overwhelmingly white Manhattan-based law firm on Wednesday, accusing it of paying lip service to diversity with its fellowship program.

Sharpton’s criticism marked the latest broadside in a long-running campaign he has waged against the firm. In a statement in 2020, he said Skadden had “appallingly low levels of diversity.”

Skadden, which includes an image of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in a slideshow on its website, boasts on the page of making “far-reaching” efforts toward diversity and inclusion.

But Sharpton described his dismay at the persistent lack of Black lawyers in leadership at Skadden. The firm has 106 white partners, six Latino or Latina partners, four Asian partners, and one Black partner, according to data compiled in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.

In a letter earlier this month, Sharpton urged a trio of nonprofits — the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU — to reevaluate their relationships with the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, a three-decade-old program.

Kathleen Rubenstein, executive director of the fellowship program, and Eric Friedman, the firm’s executive partner, replied to Sharpton in a letter dated Nov. 9, saying that they were “surprised and disheartened to receive” his letter, adding that it “appears intended to undercut the Foundation’s mission.”

source: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-rev-sharpton-letter-to-skadden-law-firm-over-diversity-20211124-r276kqj72jdylb75o6rtxgga7i-story.html

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