A prestigious Big Apple law firm has revoked job offers to three students at Harvard and Columbia universities after the Ivy League students signed controversial letters supporting the Palestinians in the wake of Hamas’ deadly slaughter in Israel.
Davis Polk & Wardwell alerted staffers on Tuesday that it had rescinded the offers because the prospective employees held leadership positions within the student organizations that issued last week’s statements blaming Israel for the attacks.
“These statements are simply contrary to our firm’s values and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees,” Davis Polk managing partner Neil Barr said in the email.
A spokesperson for the firm declined to identify the students.
Two of the Columbia students held leadership roles in groups that signed onto a letter released by the Ivy League’s Palestine Solidarity Groups, the New York Times reported.
Davis Polk & Wardwell revoked job offers to three students at Harvard and Columbia universities after the Ivy League students signed controversial letters supporting the Palestinians in the wake of Hamas’ deadly slaughter in Israel. REUTERS
Two of the Columbia students held leadership roles in groups that signed onto a letter released by the Ivy League’s Palestine Solidarity Groups, according to reports. Harvard College PSCThe other student belonged to the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, which released a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ mass slaughter.
The firm, which reps financial institutions and corporations, said it was still “in dialogue” with two of the students as of Tuesday after they had argued they didn’t authorize or individually sign the letters.
Reps for Harvard Law and Columbia Law declined to comment.
Davis Polk’s decision comes a week after another law firm, Winston & Strawn, said it had revoked a job offer to former New York University Student Bar Association president Ryna Workman following a controversial pro-Hamas column cheering the Hamas attack.
Israel-Hamas war: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,200 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce, “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
The Gaza Health Ministry — which is controlled by Hamas — reported at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
The firm said the former summer associate’s comments “profoundly conflict with Winston & Strawn’s values as a firm.”
“Winston stands in solidarity with Israel’s right to exist in peace and condemns Hamas and the violence and destruction it has ignited in the strongest terms possible,” the firm’s statement said.
NYU law dean Troy McKenzie sought to distance the school from Workman’s comments last week, saying the student’s message was not from the school and didn’t speak for its leadership.
Israeli soldiers remove the bodies of civilians slaughtered by Hamas in Kfar Gaza in southern Israel. Getty Images
Children’s toys and personal items lie on the bloodstained floor of a child’s bedroom, following a deadly infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Kibbutz Beeri, Israel. REUTERSWorkman, who identifies as non-binary, doubled down on the incendiary rhetoric, telling the Intercept on Tuesday they will “continue to speak out and show up.”
“What’s been driving me is the resilience of Palestinians in this moment,” Workman told the outlet in their first media interview since the scandal.
Looking to help?Donate here to UJA-Federation of New York’s emergency fund to supply critical aid to the people of Israel, working with a network of nonprofits helping Jewish communities around the world.
“The fact that they are still using their voice, that they are still standing strong, that they are still here, and that they are asking us to continue to speak out and show up for them through this and to not let this be their end,” they said.
Members of the media tour Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel in the wake of Hamas’ deadly onslaught. REUTERS
An Israeli soldier stands in a burned building during a patrol in kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel. AFP via Getty ImagesThe move from the law firms comes after Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder of hedge fund giant Pershing Square Capital Management, vowed to make sure any student who signed the controversial Ivy League letters won’t work on Wall Street.
At least a dozen business executives later endorsed Ackman’s call to refuse to hire members of the student groups.
With Post wires
