The Wisconsin Bar is shutting down DEI

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are shutting down in many corners of the US, but some bar associations need an extra push. On Thursday the Wisconsin Bar Association settled a federal lawsuit by ending the use of DEI in race-based leadership programs.

Under the settlement terms with a conservative legal group, the Wisconsin bar agreed to remove race, gender or other “immutable characteristics” on applications for its Leadership Development Summit or Leadership Academy, which are programs geared toward young lawyers.

Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington said that the result is that DEI has been effectively removed from all BAR programming. “For now, DEI is dead at the State Bar of Wisconsin,” Lennington said.

“Race discrimination should play no role in the regulation or training of Wisconsin’s lawyers, and it no longer does. We will continue to monitor the BAR closely and challenge race-based programs wherever we find them.”

The Wisconsin BAR will not later its definition of “diversity” to include “any consideration of race, ethnicity, color or national origin.” The BAR will also remove DEI language from its Leadership Development Summit.

After many years of a push for DEI and race-based hiring, there is now a national pushback against this practice, in favor of a merit-based, racially blind system. We are seeing the effects of it not just in tipping local and national elections, but in substantive policy change.

Those who support DEI are not giving up, and will be looking for their moment to push back. But for now, the national mood is very much against DEI.