A top law firm whose clients include Goldman Sachs, Google and Tesla will reportedly screen job applicants for whether they have taken part in inflammatory anti-Israel protests.
Sullivan & Cromwell has hired HireRight, a firm that specializes in background checks, to vet pro-Palestinian law school graduates who apply for work at the firm. The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Joseph Schenker, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, said job applicants could be disqualified if they were found to have taken part in protests where they made language that was “inflammatory” for Jews.
Sullivan & Cromwell will review news footage, social media feeds and viral videos to determine whether applicants for jobs at the firm have taken part in protests.
“People are channeling their anger about what’s happening in Gaza into racism and anti-Semitism,” Schenker told The Times.
Schenker said the firm, which employs more than 900 lawyers across 13 offices on four continents, could disqualify a candidate for employment even if he or she has not made any controversial statements.
He told the Times that anyone who takes part in protests where demonstrators shout anti-Semitic slogans is buying into “mob mentality” and will be held accountable for the words of others.
Schenker said the law firm will not question applicants about their personal beliefs or opinions.
The Times reported that Sullivan & Cromwell’s rivals are considering introducing similar rules for applicants.
The Post has reached out to Sullivan & Cromwell for comment.
On October 7, Hamas terrorists seized an Israeli town near the border with the Gaza Strip, killing around 1,200 people and taking dozens hostage.
Israel’s military response against Hamas in the Gaza Strip has sparked large-scale protests and demonstrations on university campuses across the country, with some participants chanting slogans considered anti-Semitic.
A few weeks after the Hamas attacks, the major law firm Davis Polk rescinded job offers to three law students from Harvard and Columbia University because of their alleged involvement in a letter criticizing Israel that was circulating on the campuses of the two schools.
Another law firm, Winston & Strawn, rescinded a job offer to a New York University Law student who wrote in the Student Bar Association’s online publication that “Israel bears full responsibility for the deadly attacks carried out by Hamas.”
Rauda Fawaz, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who was hired by a major law firm after graduating from Columbia University in 2022, criticized the policies implemented by Sullivan & Cromwell.
“When I met with recruiters from major law firms, I knew that my social media had to be clean, that I shouldn’t post anything that I couldn’t defend, and that I had to be of good standing to get a job at these firms,” Fawaz told The Times.
“It’s been done for a long time. Why do we have to have a special policy on this?”
