The Skadden Fellowships have been a reasonably large deal for the final 37 years. Fellows have achieved loads of good over time, enhancing authorized providers for the poor and inspiring financial independence being chief amongst them. They’ve labored for packages like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Immigration and Disability Rights projects, and the LGBTQ & HIV Project at the ACLU in New York, NY. Good whereas it lasted, huh?
The writing has been on the wall for the reason that agency bent the knee to an administration that thinks vaccines and due course of are woke nonsense. Kathleen Rubenstein recently resigned from her place of Government Director of the Skadden Basis, sharing that she’d moderately not endorse actions that [she] imagine[s] will undermine its mission. Susan Plum rapidly took over as Skadden’s interim government director and he or she seems to share none of these qualms. Reuters has protection:
The Skadden Basis, a public curiosity legislation fellowship program completely funded by legislation agency Skadden Arps, has altered its software standards to take away language associated to racial justice and different matters that grew to become flashpoints for U.S. legislation corporations below the Trump administration.
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The Skadden Basis’s web site now contains new language, saying candidates ought to work at a “sturdy, nonpartisan host group.”
Yeah, fast query, what within the precise fuck is a “sturdy, nonpartisan host group”? The glib reply is to say “no matter host group Trump likes,” however let’s take a second to interrupt the phrases down. With this administration chopping by means of norms and the incessant politicization of the whole lot, what may qualify as each sturdy and nonpartisan? An internship on the NAACP would get instantly sidelined as “too woke” and interning on the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Mission wouldn’t be far behind, however may you even do one thing “impartial” like advocating for voting rights, democracy or the rule of legislation with out getting accused of supporting an anti-Trump liberal agenda? Within the spirit of full transparency, I did a fast search on Google to see if there was some apparent instance of a “sturdy nonpartisan host group” that I used to be simply failing to think about. Right here’s what occurred:
Do you imply to inform me that the “I make up solutions machine” recognized for simply making issues up couldn’t even hassle to make one thing up?
So what’s left of the Skadden Fellowship program after you take away the entire commitments to racial justice and fairness, and cease caring in regards to the “deep connections with or insights into the marginalized consumer communities [that Fellows] search to serve? As Susan Plum would inform it, the whole lot. In a press release posted to the Skadden Fellowship web site she states that [T]he Basis’s mission has remained fixed: empowering essentially the most proficient and pushed public curiosity legal professionals to serve these residing in poverty throughout America. The language is good, however how do you meaningfully serve these residing in poverty when the man calling the pictures is similar dude who thought offering aid from a class 4 hurricane meant throwing paper towels at a crowd?
No matter that service will seem like, Skadden did a very good job of constructing certain “conservative concepts” will play a job:
Skadden had agreed that its fellows would “symbolize a variety of political opinions, together with conservative beliefs,” Trump mentioned in a March 28 submit on his Reality Social platform.
Simply so we aren’t kidding ourselves, let’s take a fast have a look at how “serving those that dwell in poverty” and “conservative beliefs” performs out in the actual world:
Lordie there’s a tape: https://t.co/9ayxRF7n0L pic.twitter.com/ocOXoBC8VM
— Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (@malcolmkenyatta) June 11, 2025
Non-rhetorical, pragmatic query: how do you “serve those that dwell in poverty” with out difficult the actual world coverage penalties of what Republican leaders and Fox TV personalities advocate for? The prior iterations of the Skadden Fellowship program didn’t have the entire solutions, however they’d the institutional help and funding to do among the good work required to assist individuals in want. Now that the agency is extra dedicated to conserving Donald Trump glad than fairness, I’m not likely certain what’s forward of them. As a lot as I’d wish to say good on Kathleen for resigning, the Fellowship program wants somebody like her proper now. Till that occurs, it’s only a countdown till we see a slew of Skadden Fellows working on the Heritage Basis.
Skadden Law Firm Fellowship Revamps Application To Omit ‘Racial Justice,’ ‘Equity’ [Reuters]
Earlier: Director Of Prestigious Skadden Fellows Program Resigns Over Firm’s Pro Bono Payola Deal With Trump
Chris Williams grew to become a social media supervisor and assistant editor for Above the Legislation in June 2021. Previous to becoming a member of the workers, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ within the Fb group Legislation Faculty Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri lengthy sufficient to graduate from Washington College in St. Louis Faculty of Legislation. He’s a former boatbuilder who’s studying to swim, is desirous about important race principle, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for biking that sometimes annoys his friends. You possibly can attain him by electronic mail at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
