A law firm known around the country for its successful litigation against Big Tech companies said Thursday it will be ending its on-campus recruitment at Harvard University amid backlash to the school president’s remarks before Congress on anti-Semitism
Edelson PC — which has won lawsuits against Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple for violating privacy laws — announced the decision to end on-campus recruitment in a letter by the firm’s founder Jay Edelson addressed to Harvard Director of Recruitment & Operations Jesse Ohrenberger. In the letter, Edelson said his firm usually refrains from commenting on the positions taken “by those in [its] network” but added that “when certain boundaries of morality and ethics are transgressed, silence is not an option.”
“We, along with the rest of the nation, observed Dr. Claudine Gay’s testimony before Congress, wherein she refused to unequivocally state that advocating for genocide would breach the school’s code of conduct,” Edelson wrote.
“Factoring in her extensive experience and preparation with a crisis management team, Dr. Gay’s testimony before Congress cannot be seen as merely a slip of the tongue,” the firm’s founder continued, adding, “ It must be unequivocally clear that calls for the genocide of any group—be it on the basis of religion, race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation—are indefensible and contrary to the values we uphold.”
During her testimony before Congress last week, Gay was asked if “calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s code of conduct,” and she responded, “It depends on the context.”
Gay issued an apology two days later, saying that “words matter,” but Gay would face more heat when on Sunday independent journalist Chris Rufo published a report outlining what he indicated to be three instances of plagiarism from the president’s dissertation. Harvard University’s highest governing body said it would stand by its president even as calls for her to step down or be fired grew.
“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” wrote The Harvard Corporation, a 12-member group overseeing the university’s academic and financial resources. While Harvard’s leadership continues to back Gay, Edelson PC said it needs to see a complete turnaround before it comes back to on-campus recruiting.
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“We have no intention of returning to on-campus recruiting unless there is a sea change. The easiest solution would be for Harvard to simply remove Dr. Gay but would, in many ways, just gloss over the core problem,” Edelson PC said in a statement to Fox News. “Harvard has been one of the most vocal proponents of ‘educating’ the nation on the need for safe spaces for students, how important trigger warnings are, and how words can be equated with violence.”