Judge Orders Law Firms to Assign Minorities and Women to Case

I have the utmost respect for Judge Baer, but this is a bit bizarre. According to Law.com, the Judge has ordered two plaintiff's class action law firms to "make every effort" to assign women and minority lawyers to the class action case. The rationale is that there are thousands of class members, male and female, from diverse backgrounds. According to the article, Judge Baer said that "it is therefore important to all concerned that there is evidence of diversity, in terms of race and gender, in the class counsel I appoint."

Just great. Federal judges are now making staffing decisions for law firms, based on race and gender. Interesting point is that he appointed the law firms two years ago as lead counsel.  More >>