Chai Feldblum, an Obama appointee who spent nearly nine years serving as the first openly gay person on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has found a new job at one of the biggest anti-union law firms in America.
Feldblum, who is leaving the EEOC because Senate Republicans blocked her renomination on the grounds that she is too “radical” on the issue of marriage equality, will not suffer unemployment long: she is becoming a partner at Morgan Lewis, one of the largest “management side” employment law firms in the country—which is to say, one of the most prominent anti-union law firms. Recently, Morgan Lewis has worked on behalf of McDonald’s against the Fight For 15. And Donald Trump’s nominee for the National Labor Relations Board, John Ring—who is already busy rolling back worker rights as fast as possible—came from Morgan Lewis. But the firm’s anti-union reputation goes back decades—in 1986, hundreds of Harvard Law students pledged not to take a job at the firm because it was a union buster. In 1992, Harvard Law students again rallied against the firm as it was interviewing new hires. “Harvard Law students are not mercenaries who will do anything for $80,000,” one of them said at the time. “We care about the morality of a practice.”
Chai Feldblum, who received a degree from Harvard Law, tells the National Law Journal that her work at Morgan Lewis will be a continuation of her career in civil rights. “’It seems common sense to me now, but it certainly didn’t six months ago,’ Feldblum said, explaining her decision to join a management-side firm.”
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair.