Commentary: Ideological discrimination in law firm hiring?

Byline: David Ziemer

I am experiencing something very novel for me - internal conflict. The source is an advice column called The Ethicist in the New York Times that has the Internet all abuzz.

Here's the reader's question: While interviewing law students for jobs as paid summer interns and full-time associates for my firm, I noticed several had resumes listing their activities in the Federalist Society. Some of my partners have conservative views similar to those of the society, but I do not. These students' politics would not affect their professional function, but my review is meant to consider their judgment and personality (though I don't need to give reasons for the assessments given). May I recommend not hiring someone solely because of his or her politics? NAME WITHHELD, GREENWICH, CONN.

The Ethicist answered that he may not, concluding, You must abandon your mini-McCarthyism and cease denying employment to those you deem politically misguided. An update states that, despite believing all the applicants qualified, the reader recommended rejecting each member of the Federalist Society.

Obviously, a public interest firm can consider the ideology of job candidates. A pro-liberty firm could rightfully treat a Federalist Society affiliation as a plus. And a pro-big-government outfit would have every right to recycle any resume listing such an affiliation.

Similarly, a sole practitioner, or small to mid-size for-profit law firm, looking to hire an associate, should be able to do the same. If they specialize in defending clients against the government, of course they will treat the Federalist Society affiliation as a plus; if they specialize in seeking benefits from the taxpayers, of course they will use the resume as toilet paper.

Extending this reasoning further, even a large for-profit law firm should be able to do the same, if their client base is such that the partners believe it is important that associates not just represent the clients, but also have their clients' interests at heart.

But what of a garden-variety Big Law firm, representing a wide array of clients?

My gut feeling is that nothing should be different. The ingrained sole-practitioner instinct says,

If I'm an owner in a firm, I have the...

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