Bar Associations
Suit challenging diversity efforts in Wisconsin bar programs fully resolved
A final settlement has been reached in a December 2023 lawsuit challenging diversity efforts in State Bar of Wisconsin programs. (Image from Shutterstock)
A final settlement has been reached in a December 2023 lawsuit challenging diversity efforts in State Bar of Wisconsin programs.
“Racially divisive DEI has been effectively removed from all bar programming by this final settlement,” according to a press release by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the conservative nonprofit that filed the suit.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty represented Wisconsin plaintiff Daniel Suh, an attorney and a bar member.
The bar previously agreed in April 2024 to redefine “diversity” as it applies to its Diversity Clerkship Program, which offers paid Wisconsin summer internships at private law firms, corporate legal departments and governmental agencies. The new definition says diversity “means including people with differing characteristics, beliefs, experiences, interests and viewpoints.”
In the final settlement, the bar also agreed that it won’t consider race or ethnicity when reviewing applicants for its Leadership Development Summit and G. Lane Ware Leadership Academy. Both programs seek to identify and train emerging bar leaders.
The bar will also use the new diversity definition in the leadership programs that was adopted for its clerkship program.
In a July 16 press release, the state bar said its programs accepted candidates from all backgrounds and did not select applicants based on race or ethnicity.
The two settlement agreements have “ensured that all three vital programs will continue unimpeded,” the press release said.
Law360 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the final settlement.
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