Last on LeGaL

Update: Despite all this Jack Scheich this week was allegedly elected President of LeGaL by the Board.

Copy of op-ed written by Mandy: http://www.nyblade.com/2007/1-26/viewpoint/opinion/tooquick.cfm

Or read it here:
OPINION

Don’t Be Too Quick to Judge


Friday, January 26, 2007

By the board members of the New York University School of Law OUTLaw and the Columbia Law School Outlaws.

As LGBT law students, we were concerned when we heard allegations that a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, a prominent New York law firm, had made discriminatory remarks about associate Aaron Charney’s sexual orientation. However, we were shocked and deeply disappointed when an officer of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Law Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) rushed to the firm’s defense and seemed to dismiss the lawyer’s allegation of discrimination out of hand.

In a January 18 ABC news story, John Scheich, the first-vice president of LeGaL, stated that “Sullivan Cromwell is far from prejudiced in any way” and that “I don’t know Aaron Charney or the details of his case, but if I had to line up on one side or the other, I would have to line up with David H. Braff [an openly gay partner at the firm] and Sullivan Cromwell.”

Scheich’s public stance on this matter is inappropriate and disturbing. Like Mr. Scheich, we are acquainted with neither Charney nor the facts of his case. Like Scheich, we have absolutely no basis on which to speculate as to whether Charney’s claim of discrimination is meritorious or frivolous. But (also, presumably, like Scheich), we are both mindful that anti-LGBT discrimination is a very serious problem, and we are aware that a firm that employs gay partners and contributes to organizations such as LeGaL is not per se incapable of discriminating against its LGBT employees. As an organization whose members are concerned about the status of LGBT individuals in the legal profession, we therefore find it appropriate to withhold judgment on the veracity of Charney’s allegations until the facts of his case are known.

We are baffled and disappointed by Scheich’s decision to do just the opposite by publicly serving as Sullivan & Cromwell’s queer apologist. In light of LeGaL’s self-described commitment to “[p]romoting the expertise and advancement of LGBT legal professionals” and “[e]ducating the public on legal issues facing LGBT people,” it seems to fly in the face of the organization’s principles to defend an employer accused of sexual orientation discrimination in the absence of any information whatsoever about the facts underlying the complaint.

SADLY THIS PERPLEXING stance would appear to be clarified by Scheich’s e-mail response, dated Jan. 19, to an alumnus of New York University School of Law who expressed his disappointment over LeGaL’s uninformed defense of Sullivan & Cromwell. In seeking to justify his statements to the media, Scheich asked, “Who are we to believe? Mr. Charney who has never shown any interest in the gay legal community before this incident (he is not a member of LeGaL) or contributed to any of our programs as far as we know, OR Dave Braff, a member of LeGaL for over 20 years, also gay, and a big contributor to LeGaL in more ways than just money and buying a table at our annual dinner/dance. We would welcome you into membership at LeGaL and any contributions both financial and otherwise you might choose to make. Shall I have our Administrator send you a membership application?”

We are concerned by the implication of Scheich’s response that LeGaL’s seal of LGBT approval is for sale. As LGBT law students, many of us will soon be young associates at law firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell. While we hope to be welcomed and supported by such firms, we are realistic enough to anticipate that some of us will likely encounter discrimination and bias, even at firms that hold themselves out as LGBT-friendly.

If and when such unfortunate events happen, we hope that organizations dedicated to advancing the interests of LGBT professionals will be able to support and assist us. Scheich’s eager defense of Sullivan & Cromwell—apparently predicated exclusively on his association with a single partner at the firm and the firm’s financial support of LeGaL—raises very serious doubts about whether LeGaL would be willing or able to provide such support and assistance. Needless to say, such doubts diminish the interest any of us—all potential members of LeGaL—would have in contributing or belonging to that organization.

On JAN. 23, NEARLY a week after Scheich’s defense of Sullivan & Cromwell was aired in the press, LeGaL’s Board of Directors issued an apology for Scheich’s comments, expressing “[sincere] regret that an officer of our organization has been quoted as essentially prejudging the merits of the lawsuit and the veracity of Mr. Charney, and that the officer also made subsequent comments.” While we appreciate LeGaL’s official position, we are still troubled by Scheich’s apparently candid equation of a lawyer’s financial contributions to LeGaL and the credibility of his sexual orientation discrimination claims.
In the future, we hope and expect that LeGaL will respond to instances such as Charney’s allegations not by reflexively defending its financial contributors, but by taking the opportunity to inform people of the importance of tolerance and the dangers of discrimination.

The New York University School of Law OUTLaw and the Columbia Law School Outlaws are organizations for LGBT law students and their allies. For more information, visit law.nyu.edu/studentorgs/outlaw/.