31 ms·

> the students’ statements don’t represent the firm’s values. The firm’s values: "John W. Davis's legal career is most remembered for his final appearance bef

by lapcat 3y ago

> the students’ statements don’t represent the firm’s values. The firm’s values: "John W. Davis's legal career is most remembered for his final appearance before the Supreme Court, in which he unsuccessfully defended the "separate but equal" doctrine in Briggs v. Elliott, a companion case to Brown v. Board of Education. Davis, as a defender of racial segregation and state control of education, argued that South Carolina had shown good faith in attempting to eliminate any inequality between black and white schools and should be allowed to continue to do so without judicial intervention." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Polk#Race_relations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis_Polk#Race_relations

readthenotes1 3y ago
Are Democrats the party of the KKK and Jim Crow? Things may have changed. (Though I cannot pass on the opportunity to remind that some of the largest protests against school desegregation were in Boston)
- lapcat 3y ago
  > Are Democrats the party of the KKK and Jim Crow? They were, yes. For example, Senator Robert Byrd was KKK, and Governor George Wallace was a Democrat before running for President in 1968 as an independent. > Things may have changed. They have. The south started to flip from Democratic to Republican during the civil rights era.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > They were Correct. The answer to "are they" is no. John W. Davis died in 1955 [1]. I think your comment is relevant, funny and informative. But it doesn't rise to making the rescission hypocritical. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis
    - lapcat 3y ago
      > Correct. The answer to "are they" is no. Well, the Jim Crow laws were declared unconstitutional in the 60s, and the Klan is now a shell of its former self, so I wouldn't put too much weight into "are" vs. "were". They were contemporaneous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Current_developments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Current_developme... > John W. Davis died in 1955 [1]. I think your comment is relevant, funny and informative. But it doesn't rise to making the rescission hypocritical. Yet the law firm still carries his name, and in first position, the first impression. Of course it's probably silly to talk about a law firm with almost $2 billion in annual revenue having any values whatsoever besides money and power.
dgrin91 3y ago
The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. Training in law school includes teaching that everyone is worthy of representation. Defense attorneys who represent obvious pedophiles, murderers, robbers, etc, don't value those concepts.
- lapcat 3y ago
  > The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. In this case, they did. Davis wasn't just a lawyer, he was a politician: "Davis acquired much of his father's southern Democratic politics, opposing women's suffrage, Federal child-labor laws and anti-lynching legislation, and Harry S. Truman's civil rights program. He defended states' rights to establish the poll tax by questioning whether uneducated non-taxpayers should be allowed to vote." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis
- drewcoo 3y ago
  If firms can successfully represent clients with oppositional values, why rescind these offers?
- JackC 3y ago
  Hmm, I think cases do express values. I've worked for a firm that took a lot of low paying criminal defense work and barely broke even most years; taking those cases defined their values that poor people deserve an effective defense. I've also worked for a firm that helped polluters keep polluting and was very profitable; taking those cases defined their values that profitability matters more than second order effects in selecting clients. Lawyers absolutely express their values by selecting firms to work at and clients to represent. But I agree with your underlying point -- you can't read a lawyer's values from a particular client's values in isolation.

by lapcat 3y ago

readthenotes1 3y ago

Are Democrats the party of the KKK and Jim Crow? Things may have changed. (Though I cannot pass on the opportunity to remind that some of the largest protests against school desegregation were in Boston)

lapcat 3y ago
> Are Democrats the party of the KKK and Jim Crow? They were, yes. For example, Senator Robert Byrd was KKK, and Governor George Wallace was a Democrat before running for President in 1968 as an independent. > Things may have changed. They have. The south started to flip from Democratic to Republican during the civil rights era.
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > They were Correct. The answer to "are they" is no. John W. Davis died in 1955 [1]. I think your comment is relevant, funny and informative. But it doesn't rise to making the rescission hypocritical. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > Correct. The answer to "are they" is no. Well, the Jim Crow laws were declared unconstitutional in the 60s, and the Klan is now a shell of its former self, so I wouldn't put too much weight into "are" vs. "were". They were contemporaneous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Current_developments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan#Current_developme... > John W. Davis died in 1955 [1]. I think your comment is relevant, funny and informative. But it doesn't rise to making the rescission hypocritical. Yet the law firm still carries his name, and in first position, the first impression. Of course it's probably silly to talk about a law firm with almost $2 billion in annual revenue having any values whatsoever besides money and power.

dgrin91 3y ago

The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. Training in law school includes teaching that everyone is worthy of representation. Defense attorneys who represent obvious pedophiles, murderers, robbers, etc, don't value those concepts.

lapcat 3y ago
> The cases a law firm represents does not define their values. In this case, they did. Davis wasn't just a lawyer, he was a politician: "Davis acquired much of his father's southern Democratic politics, opposing women's suffrage, Federal child-labor laws and anti-lynching legislation, and Harry S. Truman's civil rights program. He defended states' rights to establish the poll tax by questioning whether uneducated non-taxpayers should be allowed to vote." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Davis
drewcoo 3y ago
If firms can successfully represent clients with oppositional values, why rescind these offers?
JackC 3y ago
Hmm, I think cases do express values. I've worked for a firm that took a lot of low paying criminal defense work and barely broke even most years; taking those cases defined their values that poor people deserve an effective defense. I've also worked for a firm that helped polluters keep polluting and was very profitable; taking those cases defined their values that profitability matters more than second order effects in selecting clients. Lawyers absolutely express their values by selecting firms to work at and clients to represent. But I agree with your underlying point -- you can't read a lawyer's values from a particular client's values in isolation.