Firm Nixing Job Offer Shows ‘Right to Condemn’ Israel Views (1)

Oct. 12, 2023, 9:00 AM UTCUpdated: Oct. 12, 2023, 2:26 PM UTC

Winston & Strawn’s reversal of a job offer for a law student who blamed Israel for deadly Hamas attacks shows the risks future lawyers take by publicly adopting controversial positions.

People have a right to express their First Amendment views even though “I am saddened and outraged by those who would defend what Hamas did,” Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of University of California Berkeley Law School, said in an email.

“I—and others—have the right to condemn those views,” Chemerinsky said. “And employers have the right to decide that they don’t want to employ individuals who express those views.”

Ryna Workman, ...

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