More on Shearman's Fired Associate
The rumors continue (see my earlier post on them here) - JD2b links to this post on infirmation:
"Shearman’s Diversity Committee sponsored a luncheon featuring a guest speaker who was to discuss the topic. Following his remarks, [the person in question] inquired about the tension, if any, between the quest for diversity and the pursuit of excellence. he cited three specific sources [stanford and yale journals] charging that pressures for diversity and the concomitant lowering of standards were largely responsible for pre-9/11 intelligence failures, diminished effectiveness of emergency responders, and the death of one of the first female fighter pilots as she attempted to land on an aircraft carrier. he closed by asking the speaker something along the lines of “are you concerned about these types of situations and if so how do you resolve the tension?”

If what the speaker said is true, I still think that the Summer Associate should have known what was coming to him. A law firm is a zone where any action you make will be hyper analyzed, justly or not.

However, just because the question of whether the summer should have known what was coming to him is independent of whether we, as a greater society, should tolerate such behavior from organizations through giving them a pass in the press. Personally, I find this behavior, IF TRUE, by Shearman disgusting, and I think it should rightly be excoriated for it.