Top law firm rescinds job offers to Harvard, Columbia students linked to anti-Israel letters

Prestigious law firm Davis Polk rescinded job offers to three students who led organizations at their respective universities, Harvard and Columbia, that signed on to open letters criticizing Israel after the country was attacked by Hamas terrorists.

In an internal email viewed by FOX Business, Davis Polk chair and managing partner Neil Barr informed members of the New York-based firm Tuesday that news of the firm revoking offers to the Ivy League law students over the public statements “regarding the situation in Israel” would soon be hitting the press.

“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,” Barr wrote in the email.

Barr did not reveal the students’ names or point to the specific letters, but said the law firm was still in contact with two of the students and may reconsider the hiring reversals if their explanations warrant doing so.

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“The views expressed in certain of the statements signed by law school student organizations in recent days are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system,” the law firm said in its official statement on the matter. “For this reason and to ensure we continue to maintain a supportive and inclusive work environment, the student leaders responsible for signing on to these statements are no longer welcome in our firm; and their offers of employment have thus been rescinded.”

Davis Polk is the latest in a series of employers that have publicly withdrawn job offers to students linked to anti-Israel letters issued by pro-Palestinian college groups in the wake of the surprise attack Hamas launched on Israel earlier this month, when the terrorists murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians and took more than 100 hostage in Gaza.

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International law firm Winston & Strawn LLP rescinded a job offer to the president of the New York University Student Bar Association last week after the student issued a statement in the group’s student newsletter declaring “unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination.”

Harvard, in particular, has been hit with heavy backlash after more than two dozen student groups at the school signed on to a letter penned by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, which blamed Israel as “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” 

Outrage over the letter caused several CEOs, including billionaire Bill Ackman, to publicly declare that they would not hire any student who was a member of the organizations that signed on to the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee’s statement blaming Israel following the Hamas attack.