Skadden fellowship drops 'equity' from application

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By Sara Merken

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REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The Skadden Foundation, a public interest law fellowship program entirely funded by Skadden Arps, has altered its application criteria to remove language related to racial justice and other topics that became flashpoints for U.S. law firms under the Trump administration.

Applicants last year were required to explain "the role of public interest work in addressing systemic racism" and asked "to the extent your project relates to racial justice, please describe the intended impact of your project on racial equity in our country." That essay question is absent in updated application materials for the two-year fellowship, which funds law graduates to work at non-profit organizations, according to a Reuters review of the current applications and archived versions from one year ago.

Spokespeople for the Skadden Foundation and the law firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Read more on the changes from David Thomas.

REUTERS/Will Dunham

Since President Trump returned to office in January, his administration has bombarded the U.S. Supreme Court with emergency requests seeking immediate intervention to free up his initiatives stymied by lower courts. The strategy is paying off.

Once a rarely used pathway to the nation's top judicial body, its emergency docket now bulges with an unprecedented volume of requests for rapid attention by the justices in clashes over Trump's far-reaching executive actions.

Read more from Andrew Chung.

sara.merken@thomsonreuters.com

@saramerken

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