Seeking gratis response from INGO lawyers, so realize response rate might be low/zero

[BugI02]

Anyone seeing this type of thing at the local level or is it still confined to larger firms (longish read)

The Takeover of America's Legal System

The kids didn't grow out of it.

bariweiss.substack.com

 

[Tryin']

That was a heck of a read. Thanks for posting!

 

[JEBland]

Haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but there was a mention of commies at a once-existing law school in IN:

Commies at my alma mater? Valparaiso Univ. and the CCP?

I mean, I met a communist or two in law school, but every law school has them. This is all news to me. https://www.dailywire.com/news/indianas-attorney-general-launches-probe-into-chinese-communist-partys-domestic-propaganda-program

www.indianagunowners.com

 

[ancjr]

Anyone seeing this type of thing at the local level or is it still confined to larger firms (longish read)

The Takeover of America's Legal System

The kids didn't grow out of it.

bariweiss.substack.com

Let's just sit back and see how it turns out.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Wow. Just wow. Thats a bunch of kids that needs to go live elsewhere. This country obviously isnt for them.

 

[HoughMade]

Haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but there was a mention of commies at a once-existing law school in IN:

Commies at my alma mater? Valparaiso Univ. and the CCP?

I mean, I met a communist or two in law school, but every law school has them. This is all news to me. https://www.dailywire.com/news/indianas-attorney-general-launches-probe-into-chinese-communist-partys-domestic-propaganda-program

www.indianagunowners.com

Let's be clear- this was not in the law school which was a separate entity. I'm sure there was propaganda on the undergrad campus, but as I said, it is completely separate- completely as in sharing a name only and an VU refused to bail the law school out as it was going under. I named the topic for the sake of very little humor.

I graduated from VUSL in 1998 and taught a class there for 10+ years until it closed.

Anyhoo,

Are there virulent leftists in law school faculty? Of course. However the legal profession, regardless of politics, is one of the more conservative professions. That is, change come very slowly and is resisted at every step.

As for the leftist academics....they have been in law school for a long time, even when I was there. However, myself and many, many other political conservatives just did what we needed to get grades and went on with life. As far as I know, it's always been that way. My education didn't change my viewpoints at all and I don't know of many people, if any, that it did.

Yale? To the practicing lawyer, Yale is a joke. They choose people they believe will end up in important positions and make sure they graduate. Many of the "top tier" law schools are the same way. elitists gonna elite and they always have.

The key is that true liberals, not leftists radicals, liberals are still out there. They don't like the authoritarian leanings of the new generation any more than conservative. It's time for us to get allies where we can. Conservatives and liberals alike should be on the same page when it comes to the right to representation and not vilifying lawyers for representing unpopular clients. Do you want gulags? Because that's how you get gulags. Conservatives- stop attacking politicians who used to be lawyers for representing people accused of crimes, even horrible crimes. I seem to recall a lot of anti-Hillary hate due to some criminals she represented. Stop it. That's very similar to what the hard leftists are doing as detailed in the article.

I could go on and on, but there are plenty of conservative lawyers and nothing that happens in academia short of vetting for political beliefs (unlikely be cause law school value $$$ even more than political homogeny) is going to change that. We will continue to fight, judges will come from both sides and we are in for decades more of partisan division, but with the existence of 2 sides remaining. I mean, we could join with traditional liberals to push back, but it seems like people like defining themselves by their enemies too much to actually accomplish anything.

 

[JEBland]

Let's be clear- this was not in the law school which was a separate entity. I'm sure there was propaganda on the undergrad campus, but as I said, it is completely separate- completely as in sharing a name only and an VU refused to bail the law school out as it was going under.

That was my misunderstanding. Sorry.

 

[Ark]

Bari Weiss was a card carrying, freedom hating communist zealot until one day the leopards she raised did, indeed, eat her face, too.

 

[printcraft]

 

[BugI02]

Let's be clear- this was not in the law school which was a separate entity. I'm sure there was propaganda on the undergrad campus, but as I said, it is completely separate- completely as in sharing a name only and an VU refused to bail the law school out as it was going under. I named the topic for the sake of very little humor.

I graduated from VUSL in 1998 and taught a class there for 10+ years until it closed.

Anyhoo,

Are there virulent leftists in law school faculty? Of course. However the legal profession, regardless of politics, is one of the more conservative professions. That is, change come very slowly and is resisted at every step.

As for the leftist academics....they have been in law school for a long time, even when I was there. However, myself and many, many other political conservatives just did what we needed to get grades and went on with life. As far as I know, it's always been that way. My education didn't change my viewpoints at all and I don't know of many people, if any, that it did.

Yale? To the practicing lawyer, Yale is a joke. They choose people they believe will end up in important positions and make sure they graduate. Many of the "top tier" law schools are the same way. elitists gonna elite and they always have.

The key is that true liberals, not leftists radicals, liberals are still out there. They don't like the authoritarian leanings of the new generation any more than conservative. It's time for us to get allies where we can. Conservatives and liberals alike should be on the same page when it comes to the right to representation and not vilifying lawyers for representing unpopular clients. Do you want gulags? Because that's how you get gulags. Conservatives- stop attacking politicians who used to be lawyers for representing people accused of crimes, even horrible crimes. I seem to recall a lot of anti-Hillary hate due to some criminals she represented. Stop it. That's very similar to what the hard leftists are doing as detailed in the article.

I could go on and on, but there are plenty of conservative lawyers and nothing that happens in academia short of vetting for political beliefs (unlikely be cause law school value $$$ even more than political homogeny) is going to change that. We will continue to fight, judges will come from both sides and we are in for decades more of partisan division, but with the existence of 2 sides remaining. I mean, we could join with traditional liberals to push back, but it seems like people like defining themselves by their enemies too much to actually accomplish anything.

Hola, Hough

You were one of the ones I truly hoped would reply. I was wondering about the associates confronting partners and pushing them to get with the program as detailed in the article. To me it seemed like a way not to make partner, but I didn't have any relevant experience to use to assess the veracity

What I know of your firm and situation made me think that if it was showing up in smaller firms, away from the big cities, you might have seen it or heard about it from peers

 

[wtburnette]

Let's be clear- this was not in the law school which was a separate entity. I'm sure there was propaganda on the undergrad campus, but as I said, it is completely separate- completely as in sharing a name only and an VU refused to bail the law school out as it was going under. I named the topic for the sake of very little humor.

I graduated from VUSL in 1998 and taught a class there for 10+ years until it closed.

Anyhoo,

Are there virulent leftists in law school faculty? Of course. However the legal profession, regardless of politics, is one of the more conservative professions. That is, change come very slowly and is resisted at every step.

As for the leftist academics....they have been in law school for a long time, even when I was there. However, myself and many, many other political conservatives just did what we needed to get grades and went on with life. As far as I know, it's always been that way. My education didn't change my viewpoints at all and I don't know of many people, if any, that it did.

Yale? To the practicing lawyer, Yale is a joke. They choose people they believe will end up in important positions and make sure they graduate. Many of the "top tier" law schools are the same way. elitists gonna elite and they always have.

The key is that true liberals, not leftists radicals, liberals are still out there. They don't like the authoritarian leanings of the new generation any more than conservative. It's time for us to get allies where we can. Conservatives and liberals alike should be on the same page when it comes to the right to representation and not vilifying lawyers for representing unpopular clients. Do you want gulags? Because that's how you get gulags. Conservatives- stop attacking politicians who used to be lawyers for representing people accused of crimes, even horrible crimes. I seem to recall a lot of anti-Hillary hate due to some criminals she represented. Stop it. That's very similar to what the hard leftists are doing as detailed in the article.

I could go on and on, but there are plenty of conservative lawyers and nothing that happens in academia short of vetting for political beliefs (unlikely be cause law school value $$$ even more than political homogeny) is going to change that. We will continue to fight, judges will come from both sides and we are in for decades more of partisan division, but with the existence of 2 sides remaining. I mean, we could join with traditional liberals to push back, but it seems like people like defining themselves by their enemies too much to actually accomplish anything.

I wish people would realize there is a difference between a classic Liberal and a Progressive. They are not the same thing. We do ourselves a disservice by lumping the two together. A classic Liberal can be reasoned with and will occasionally change their stance when presented with a compelling argument. The Progressive will always always always stick with their agenda because it's their religion. When presented with facts they'll just call you a racist, misogynist, homophobe or whatever and pray for your death for disagreeing with them.

 

[Ironhippie]

Anyone seeing this type of thing at the local level or is it still confined to larger firms (longish read)

The Takeover of America's Legal System

The kids didn't grow out of it.

bariweiss.substack.com

If you want to see where our country is headed this is a must read. Its been said for years, liberalism is a disease but in the hands of this younger generation of lawyers and activist its a cancer thats well on its way to destroying our great Nation. This article should scare the s*** out of us all!

 

[rem788]

“The truth doesn’t matter much. The game is to signal one’s virtue.” Above all else you must be SEEN as virtuous. Another result of the social media epidemic? While I support efforts to eliminate inequality, we must be ever vigilant for unintended consequences. Law firms refusing to represent based on accusations, judges as activists disregarding laws, law schools and law professors afraid to speak out are all consequences of the pendulum swinging too far. Even being judged by a jury of your peers is being challenged, the cornerstone of the justice system. One can only hope that some point, reason will reassert itself, but I have little hope this will happen anytime soon.

 

[hoosierdoc]

All the attorneys or firms who represented Trump were threatened with blacklisting. Many dropped Trump as a client because of it

 

[HoughMade]

Hola, Hough

You were one of the ones I truly hoped would reply. I was wondering about the associates confronting partners and pushing them to get with the program as detailed in the article. To me it seemed like a way not to make partner, but I didn't have any relevant experience to use to assess the veracity

What I know of your firm and situation made me think that if it was showing up in smaller firms, away from the big cities, you might have seen it or heard about it from peers

"Big Law" is its own thing and, thankfully, I have never been involved in it.

These are the firms with hundreds of lawyers across the country and sometimes around the world. They play politics in everything they do. They are generally based on New York, Chicago and L.A. (and London, Paris, etc.) which, if they want access to the power in those cities, automatically makes them left of center. Add to that they recruit heavily from the Ivy league, which itself recruits leftists, and you get a recipe for left-leaning firms with whacked out leftist baby attorneys. The lack of any respect for seniority or structure of the firm doesn't surprise me in these places. The the associates would stage a "revolt" of sorts and make demands is not surprising. The higher-ups have made their collective bed, now they can lie in it. Screw 'em. Funny thing, as leftists tend to be, they are complete hypocrites when it comes to money. They will talk big about how the 1% needs to be taken down while throwing everything they have to make it to the 2%.

However, "Big Law" makes up only about 8% of lawyers. The rest of us toil in somewhat less "glamor"....thankfully.

I worked in a small firm for 7 months, quit (poorly run) then moved to what was at the time the largest law firm in NW Ind., still not "Big Law" or even close, we had 45 attorneys which made it a medium-sized firm in the greater scheme of things. I was there for nearly 17 years, then had an opportunity to move to another medium-sized firm in NWI. It is a great place to be. Medium and small are where most lawyers are (outside of gvt.).

These firms, regardless of political leanings of the members, tend to be "conservative" in that they like to avoid controversy and prefer slow change if any at all. I won't get into the political leanings of my partners, but sufficed to say, when it comes to running the firm and serving our clients, we're all on the same page. We have handled cases that look like they come from the left, and other that look like they come from the right, which enabled us to keep clients of all stripes happy. We are not unusual. Even in "Blue" Lake County, it would be tough point out a firm and say: "they are politically conservative" or "they are leftists." I sense that outside of "Big Law" this is common.

I say that to say this- firms like mine have been struggling, like a lot of other places, to get and keep good young lawyers as they have less loyalty, don't want to wait to make real money and have a sense of entitlement...not all, but overall, this describes the group. The ones who don't stay, maybe we don't want to keep. The ones who do stay, get hierarchy and know they have a lot to learn.

 

[gunrunner0]

I went to an extremely small law school out of state, and have only been in practice for about 6 years. My experience aligns with HoughMade, in terms of law school faculty and what I've observed of political leanings in small-firm legal practice in Elkhart county.

I would also note, that while the majority of my law school faculty were unabashed liberals, I wouldn't describe them as overly pushy with their beliefs. I also think that 22-25 year olds in law school are less politically malleable that 18-22 year old undergrad students.