Law firm King & Spalding defeats lawsuit over lawyer diversity program

By Mike Scarcella

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Law firm King & Spalding has persuaded a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit by a white, female lawyer who accused the firm of bias over a job program focused on boosting diversity for early-career attorneys.

U.S. District Judge James Bredar in Baltimore in a ruling on Tuesday said the plaintiff had not shown that she had intended to apply to the King & Spalding program, and so was not harmed by it.

Bredar said the allegations by Sarah Spitalnick appeared more like disagreements over the law firm’s hiring practices than “incursions on her individual rights.”

Spitalnick’s lawsuit came amid a wave of cases challenging initiatives at major law firms to increase diversity. Such programs have come under intense scrutiny in court and elsewhere in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling in 2023 ending affirmative action.

Representatives from King & Spalding and attorneys for Spitalnick did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Spitalnick had no immediate comment.

Atlanta-founded King & Spalding employs more than 1,300 lawyers in the firm’s U.S. and international offices.

The firm in 2021 advertised a diversity mentorship for first-year law students to join its summer associate ranks through a program sponsored by an outside group, Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.

Spitalnick, who was then a law student, said she saw the law firm’s ad, but was deterred from applying because she is white and heterosexual.

In seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, King & Spalding said Spitalnick’s “failure to be selected is a self-inflicted wound.” The firm said Spitalnick’s “choice not to apply is the reason why she was not considered, let alone selected.”

The firm denied that it discriminated against Spitalnick and told Bredar that the program was “far broader than plaintiff’s interpretation of it and did not foreclose her from applying.”

The current version of the program advertisement no longer contains references to candidates' ethnicity or sexual orientation. It was not clear when that change was made.

The case is Sarah Spitalnick v. King & Spalding, U.S. District Court, District of Maryland, No. 1:24-cv-01367-JKB.

For plaintiff: Jonathan Gross of Law Office of Jonathan S. Gross

For defendant: Guy Brenner and Evandro Gigante of Proskauer Rose

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