This is the story we hoped wouldn’t happen, but let’s be honest — of course it did. It was always going to happen.
Between the administration publicly threatening criminal action against private sector companies over diversity initiatives and law firms rushing to curry favor with the White House, it was only a matter of time before a Biglaw firm tried to memory-hole prior diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
As we’ve monitored Biglaw websites over the couple weeks since Trump returned to power, we took heart every time we noticed that a major firm still hadn’t tried to subtly purge its public-facing site of any mention of diversity. Unfortunately, though perhaps inevitably, the legal community is no longer pitching a perfect game.
Let’s play a game of Photo Hunt! Here’s a screenshot of the K&L Gates website today:
Can you spot the difference from this image captured on January 30 from the Wayback Machine:
Yes, the “The” is missing! But probably more importantly the “Our Commitment to Diversity” link at the top of the whole page.
While this was the only major change to the homepage, the deletions and heavy edits didn’t stop there. Over on the “About” page, the December 19, 2024, version of the website looked like this:
This morning’s version of the About page looks like this:
And the changes aren’t limited to word choices. The entire “Diversity and Inclusion”-turned-“Opportunity and Inclusion” page has changed. The old website included visual representations backing up the firm’s commitment. For example:
The accomplishments of these attorneys are now deleted. The page still offers general statements about inclusion, but any specific claims about individual achievements are gone, hiding from public view any way to measure the firm’s success in this area. The page also linked to “a robust educational toolkit” developed by the firm and a block set off in all caps recognizing that “WE PLEDGE TO FOLLOW THE MANSFIELD RULE.”
And for what? If firms think scrubbing diversity efforts will shield them, they should ask Target how that worked out. The retail giant backtracked on its public DEI commitments — only to get sued by Trump’s fellow travelers anyway. These people won’t be satisfied until the entire workforce looks like a 1950s country club. It undermines firm culture for nothing.
Even the Diversity and Inclusion Committee has been scrubbed. Now rebranded as the Opportunity and Inclusion Committee and its mission statement reads… a little differently.
By way of comparison, this is the old description:
These global committees oversee robust budgets and our employee resource groups (ERGs), which include groups for women lawyers; LGBT employees and allies; lawyers of color; working parents; veterans; and lawyers with disabilities. These groups spearhead programs ranging from women’s business mentorship training in Portland and promoting mental health awareness in London and Melbourne, to assisting transgender individuals with name changes in Melbourne, Pittsburgh and Sydney.
And this is the new description:
These global committees oversee robust budgets and our taskforces, which include groups that explore ways to best support and utilize the unique and various perspectives of the professionals within our community that contribute to the overall success of the firm and our clients.
Erasing “women lawyers; LGBT employees and allies; lawyers of color; working parents; veterans; and lawyers with disabilities” seems significant. In a different submenu, the site continues to identify a “Women in the Profession Committee, Opportunity & Inclusion Committee, LGBTQ+ Subcommittee, Disability Inclusion Taskforce, and Veterans Taskforce” but at the top level, these specific issues are scrubbed into vague generalities.
As an aside, there’s a sad comedy watching conservatives on social media angrily pushback against the idea that “DEI” ever meant working parents, or veterans, or folks with disabilities. The whole term was a mostly corporate buzz effort to lump numerous inclusion efforts under the same administrative roof, but conservatives are adamant that this can’t be true. Because regardless of every DEI mission statement ever written, they just wanted it to be a socially acceptable way to use racial slurs.
As the new website says, “We will continue to listen, learn, and work together to build a culture where everyone is welcome, included, and has the opportunity to demonstrate their skills.” I’d be interested to hear what they’re hearing and learning after these edits. Frankly, I’d be interested to hear what the Committee had to say about these changes in the first place — or if they were even consulted.
We contacted the firm for comment and haven’t heard back. That said, this is one of those stories where the firm can’t really explain away the impact of the documents on their face and the impression it gives to an outside reader — and even more so to an inside reader working as an attorney or staff member. That’s why nothing is “cosmetic” when talking about this work. It’s all a series of signals up and down the firm hierarchy and out toward clients.
Giving the firm the benefit of the doubt, leadership likely expects the committee and the firm as a whole to maintain business as usual. They probably would argue that these are purely “cosmetic” changes and they remain committed to these causes even if they’ve pushed that commitment to harder-to-find corners of the site.
But when we’re talking about inclusion, shunting people and their accomplishments off to the side is the problem. The whole point is to build a workplace where traditionally marginalized or otherwise overlooked people feel like they’re part of the team. When an employer signals that they’re afraid to publicly acknowledge women and minorities and LGBT folks and every other employee covered by the diversity, equity, and inclusion umbrella, that’s ballgame. The trust is fractured, and the message is clear: diversity is fine, just as long as no one can see it.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
