Top Law Firm Screens Job Applicants for Anti-Israel Protest Participation

Sullivan & Cromwell, a leading corporate law firm, has started screening job applicants for involvement in anti-Israel protests. This move follows concerns about antisemitism and campus free speech.

Sullivan & Cromwell Implements Policy to Screen Job Applicants for Involvement in Anti-Israel Protests Amid Campus Unrest

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas has persisted for months, students have been engaging in violent protests at several of the most esteemed academic institutions in the United States. Amid campus protests, schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and NYU have attempted—and frequently failed—to maintain longstanding free expression traditions while simultaneously condemning antisemitism.

Currently, one of the nation's most distinguished corporate law firms is intervening in the controversy, asserting that colleges have neglected to safeguard Jewish students from antisemitic and bigoted rhetoric.

According to a recent report from the New York Times, Sullivan & Cromwell, which has recently worked with Amazon, BP, and Goldman Sachs, has enlisted the services of background check company HireRight to identify job applicants who have been involved in recent anti-Israel demonstrations on their campuses.

According to Joseph Shenker, a senior chair at the firm, applicants who have participated in antisemitic protests or demonstrations in which phrases that could be "triggering" to Jews have been spoken may potentially be disqualified under the new policy.

“People are taking their outrage about what’s going on in Gaza and turning it into racist antisemitism,”Shenker told the Times.

The policy can potentially exclude applicants from employment, regardless of whether they participated in controversial chants or rally cries, reported the Times. The Times reports that an applicant discovered to have attended a protest may be required to explain to the firm whether they took any action to influence the behavior of those in their vicinity. This is because mere attendance at a protest could be grounds for scrutiny.

According to Fortune, Gadeir Abbas, a counsel at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the new policy was "objectionable."

“What Sullivan & Cromwell is doing is they’re creating the foundations for future blacklists that will say more about Sullivan & Cromwell than it will about the kids and students that they’re targeting,” he said.

Abbas also stated that the policy may violate Title VII, a civil rights law provision prohibiting discrimination based on nationality, ethnicity, and race.

The free speech protections afforded to private employees are inferior to those afforded to employees of public institutions. Firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell can make employment decisions based on applicants' publicly expressed beliefs, provided they do not specifically discriminate against protected categories such as race or religion.

Sullivan & Cromwell's Policy on Protest Participation Faces Allegations of Discrimination Against Muslims and Palestinians

Abbas argued that the new policy being pursued by Sullivan & Cromwell may be unconstitutional discrimination against Muslims and Palestinians due to its extensive nature.

“Law students and people that may apply to Sullivan & Cromwell, some of them are going to be Palestinian, some of them are going to be Arab or Muslim,” he told Fortune. “And because we’re talking about a genocide, there’s something racial about that kind of crime. It’s just the case that the opposition to the destruction of Palestinians arises inexorably from a person’s ancestry. If you’re Palestinian, you’re going to be opposed to it.”

Israel's protracted assault on Gaza has been labeled genocide by a UN human rights expert; however, the Biden Administration has not done so.

However, Shenker informed the Times that the policy did not necessarily condemn demonstrations against Israel in general or examine privately held beliefs. Instead, the background checks were solely an extension of the organization's current stance on hate speech. Additionally, he stated that the screenings would not have been required if schools had taken more proactive measures to safeguard Jewish pupils and control anti-Semitic demonstrations from the outset.

Dylan Saba, an attorney at Palestine Legal, informed Fortune that the policy's level of scrutiny would be so "draconian" that the firm could not enforce it without violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“My charitable assessment is that this is mostly for PR,” Saba said. “They want to signal to some group of people that they’re really out in front of stamping out criticism of Israel and pro-Palestine views.”

Fortune's request for comment still needs to be addressed by Sullivan & Cromwell.

The controversial issue of student demonstrators has been a source of concern for numerous law firms since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. Shenker composed an open letter to law school deans, urging them to limit the increasingly extreme demonstrations on campuses. Approximately 200 additional firms signed the letter.

Although S&C is the first organization to establish a formal policy regarding protestors, it is not the first to incorporate the demonstrations into its hiring practices. Last year, Davis Polk rescinded offers to three students who were suspected of leading demonstrations that blamed Israel for the October 7 attack. Winston & Strawn also withdrew an offer from a student who expressed a similar sentiment in a school newsletter.

Competitors of Sullivan & Cromwell Consider Similar Policies Amid Rising Corporate and Public Indignation Over Gaza Conflict

Additionally, The Times reported that numerous competitors of S&C are privately contemplating comparable policies.

“You expect law firms to understand that if we’re going to have a profession filled with smart, independent-minded people who are fierce advocates, many of them are going to speak out against the genocide,” Abbas said. “If you disagree with them, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t exclude them from the profession, as Sullivan & Cromwell seemingly is trying to do.”

Corporate America has now been affected by the public indignation against Israel's conduct in the Gaza assault, which reached an inflection point this spring with mass arrests on campuses across the country. Since early June, a group of demonstrators has assembled outside Citigroup's headquarters in New York City to protest the financial institution's ties to Israel.

Intelligent, an education news outlet, surveyed over 600 pro-Palestine student activists recently. Nearly 30% of the respondents reported that they had an employment offer rescinded within the past six months. About 70% of respondents indicated that interviewers inquired about their participation in demonstrations.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration would resume shipping 500-pound bombs to Israel, partially lifting a two-month halt on shipments that was imposed in response to concerns that the weapons would be used to bomb Rafah.

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