When a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s executive order targeting Susman Godfrey, long considered the top litigation boutique in the nation, the firm hailed the decision as a win for equality under the law.
“This fight is bigger and more important than any one firm,” Susman Godfrey wrote in a press release on April 15. “Susman Godfrey is fighting this unconstitutional executive order because it infringes on the rights of all Americans and the rule of law.”
One month later, the firm announced the recipients of a prestigious prize that only minorities are eligible to win.
The Susman Godfrey Prize, which includes a $4,000 cash award and “ongoing mentoring” from the firm’s attorneys, is typically given to 20 “students of color” at a handful of top law schools. In his executive order targeting the firm, President Donald Trump cited the prize as an example of “blatant discrimination” that should disqualify the firm from government contracts and security clearances.
Rather than make the prize open to all, Susman Godfrey doubled down, announcing on May 16 that it expanded the number of recipients from 20 to 25 but kept the racial criteria intact. The winners, who must be nominated by their respective institutions, included Harvard Law Review president G. Terrell Seabrooks, who is now fending off two federal probes over the journal’s race-based policies.
President Donald Trump has launched a wide-ranging campaign against Big Law, issuing executive orders that target particular firms and directing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency that enforces employment discrimination law, to investigate the race-based practices of the private bar. The decision to award the prize despite that onslaught underscores the unwillingness of some top firms to part ways with their diversity programs, even as those programs provide fodder for federal probes and private lawsuits.
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