Pushbacks to DEI and ESG and Corporate Law Firm Responses

Corporate law firms are guided by the profit principle. Profits per Equity Partner is the basis for their competition. As a result, it is argued, their professionalism is reduced to following client directions.

Law firms tout their DEI and ESG efforts. Research has revealed that there were pushed to DEI by the demands of their clients. Many law firms have found a profit center in ESG consulting.

In the U.S., under political pressures, about 20% of large corporations are scaling back on DEI. Leading corporate actors have retreated on ESG. Shareholder proposals on these subjects are being defeated in increasing numbers. Republican State Attorney Generals wrote to the 100 largest law firms advising them to discontinue their ESG and DEI efforts. Some law firms have been sued over their DEI policies.

This article analyzes how the 100 largest U.S. law firm have responded to the changing market and these political pressures. Through scraping their websites, I will describe their responses. For example, are law firms following some of their clients and firing their DEI staff? Where firms have acted in ways that appear inconsistent with their market and the political pressures to which they are subject, I will engage in ethnographic analysis.

This data will enable a better understanding of law firms as businesses. It also will enable a finer understanding of the legal professionalization project. The pushback against DEI and ESG in corporations not only changes their demands from law firms but also their conceptions of business ethics. What do law firm responses tell us about the relations of business and legal ethics?

In the Anthropocene, there will be pushbacks against necessary changes and retreats from commitments to them. This article describes how law firms responded.