5 days ago
Wisconsin Bar redefines ‘diversity' to settle discrimination lawsuit
July 17 (Reuters) - The State Bar of Wisconsin has modified its definition of 'diversity' for applicants to its leadership programs, ending a two-year-old lawsuit brought by a conservative legal group alleging the programs discriminate based on race.
The change, announced by the state bar on Wednesday, comes more than a year after the organization made similar modifications to a diversity program for law students following a partial settlement in the same lawsuit.
The latest settlement, disclosed in a joint court filing on Tuesday by the state bar and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, requires the Wisconsin bar to make clear in promotional and application materials that its leadership and law student diversity clerkship programs are open to all law students and state bar members.
Those changes will allow the G. Lane Ware Leadership Academy and Leadership Summit to 'continue unencumbered,' the state bar said. The Ware Leadership Academy is a leadership development course over three two-day sessions annually for "a diverse and inclusive group of lawyers." The Leadership Summit is an annual luncheon for 24 young lawyers who "possess the potential to be the next generation of state bar leaders."
'We are pleased to have reached an amicable agreement that resolves the outstanding litigation,' said Ryan Billings, the Wisconsin Bar's immediate past president, in a statement.
Dan Lennington, deputy counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said Thursday that the state bar 'was caught red-handed using race to discriminate against applicants for its programs,' and that diversity and inclusion 'is over at the state bar.'
'We will continue to monitor them, and if they backslide, we will sue them again,' Lennington said.
The state bar's leadership program applications previously referenced 'race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, age, sexual orientation and disability,' in their diversity definitions. Under the new definition, diversity means "including people with differing characteristics, beliefs, experiences, interests, and viewpoints.'
The Wisconsin lawsuit is among a series of legal challenges to diversity programs after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that colleges and universities cannot consider race in admissions.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty sued the state bar, opens new tab in December 2023 on behalf of attorney Daniel Suhr, asserting he should not have to pay for the bar's law student diversity fellowship program. Using Suhr's mandatory dues for what he claimed was an illegal program violated his First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said.
After the bar agreed to a partial settlement addressing the law student fellowship program in April 2024, Suhr filed an amended complaint alleging that the bar's leadership programs were discriminatory.
A federal judge declined to dismiss the case in August, ruling that Suhr should have the opportunity to establish through evidence whether the bar is using mandatory dues to fund 'non-germane' activities.
Read more:
Discrimination lawsuit prompts Wisconsin Bar to modify diversity program
Conservative group sues Wisconsin bar to block diversity clerkship program
