New York Times, A Prestigious Law Firm Rescinded Job Offers for Columbia and Harvard Students, but It May Reverse Itself:
Davis Polk, one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, recently rescinded employment offers made to three students who the firm believed led organizations at Harvard and Columbia that issued statements blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead.
On Tuesday, the firm said it was reconsidering that decision for two of the three students, who fought their dismissals and said that they did not authorize the letters, which did not have any individual signatories. The potential reversal highlights the complexities — for both employers and employees — of navigating what has quickly become one of the most emotionally divisive issues in recent decades.
The New York law firm said two of the students held leadership roles in groups that signed a letter at Columbia and one was affiliated with the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, which jointly wrote a letter that held the “Israeli regime” responsible for the deadly violence.
The firm did not identify the students or which two of the offers it was reconsidering. …
Another law firm, Winston & Strawn, recently rescinded an employment offer it had made to a New York University law student, Ryna Workman, the president of the university’s Student Bar Association, who had written a message to their student group stating that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.”
