[blindlaw] from law.com: Judge's Unusual Order Revives Law Firm Diversity Issue

[Nightingale, Noel]

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202474038196&Judges_Unusual_Order_Revives_Law_Firm_Diversity_Issue

excerpt:

After 16 years of observing scores of litigation teams from his seat on the Southern District bench, Judge Harold Baer Jr. has strong views about what is lacking in many slaw firms: diversity

A stir recently erupted in the securities class action bar after Baer issued an order<http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/102810order1.pdf> in a case against Gilda Activewear Inc., directing two of the largest firms in the field, Labaton Sucharow and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, to "make every effort" to put at least one woman and one minority lawyer on the case<http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202472380122>. The ensuing press about the order caused Edward Labaton, a senior partner at his firm, to make a rare court appearance earlier this month to publicly state that his firm was committed to equal opportunity (See Labaton's letter<http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/102810letter.pdf> to Baer).
In a follow up order last Friday<http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/102810order2.pdf> in In re Gildan Activewear Inc. Securities Litigation, 08 cv 5048, Baer said his initial order "was not intended to be critical in any way" of how the two firms promote diversity or prosecute and staff a case. But he said the diversity considerations "were goals I would urge be met in similar cases that come before me."