Winston & Strawn Defends DEI Fellowship Amid Lawsuit Threat

Winston & Strawn plans to continue with its diversity fellowship program despite being threatened with a lawsuit by a prominent affirmative action foe.

“Our program is appropriate, legal and compliant and it will continue,” Winston partner Cardelle Spangler wrote Friday in a letter to lawyers for Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights.

The group last week sent letters to Winston & Strawn and two other law firms—Hunton Andrews & Kurth and Adams and Reese—threatening to sue the firms if they did not scrap diversity fellowship programs or revise eligibility criteria. The programs violate federal law by excluding certain participants ...