Perkins Coie, Morrison & Foerster Lawyer Up for DEI Lawsuits

Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster are building out their legal teams as the firms gear up to defend against the legal attacks by Edward Blum on their diversity fellowships.

Perkins Coie has hired attorneys from Jenner & Block and attorney Jared Eisenberg from Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, a complex-litigation boutique based in Dallas.

Eisenberg joined Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann in 2014 from Cravath, Swaine & Moore, according to his profile on the firm’s website.

The Jenner & Block lawyers are Annie Kastanek, who was an assistant US attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, as well as Marcus Childress, a former January 6 insurrection investigator. Ishan Bhabha and Lauren Hartz, who cochair the firm’s DEI Protection Task Force, also join.

At the time the lawsuit was filed Perkins Coie spokesperson Justin Cole said, “As a firm, we have been a leader in efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession. Our commitment to those values remains steadfast. We will defend this lawsuit vigorously.”

Morrison & Foerster has retained representation from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, which is teaming up with attorneys from Gelber Schachter & Greenberg, a Miami-founded boutique firm, according to a firm spokesperson. The Miami boutique is also representing Sam Bankman-Fried in FTX’s fraud litigation. Morrison & Foerster has declined to comment on the litigation.

The two law firms are being sued by the American Alliance for Equal Rights, which was created by Edward Blum—the man credited with engineering the downfall of affirmative action in higher education. The lawsuits against the international firms are over fellowships aimed at hiring diverse candidates and ask the respective courts to permanently bar the firms’ current diversity fellowships. Morrison & Foerster made its eligibility language race-neutral following the suit by Blum’s group.

Gibson Dunn is also representing a venture capital firm also being targeted by Blum’s group. The American Alliance for Equal Rights is suing Fearless Fund Management, alleging the fund is “operating a racially-discriminatory program.” The fund invests in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level or series A financing.

Gibson Dunn, which has its own diversity programs, recently altered the language of eligibility criteria for its diversity scholarship to make it race-neutral.

Blum’s two-year-old group is being represented by attorneys at Sasso & Sasso, Lawfair and Consovoy McCarthy.

The cases are American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Morrison & Foerster, S.D. Fla., No. 1:23-cv-23189, 8/22/23; and American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Perkins Coie, N.D. Tex., No. 3:23-cv-01877, 8/22/23; and American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund Management, LLC et al, No. 1:23-cv-03424 (N.D. Ga. 8/2/23.