Ever since students at universities across the US began protesting the Gaza war, they have drawn the ire of financial heavyweights — financiers, lawyers, bankers — who have flexed their financial muscle over their universities, bringing down their leaders in the process.
But that didn't stop the students: protests have intensified this year, with the campus emptied over the summer holidays.
Now, a prominent Wall Street law firm is taking a more direct approach to protesters: Sullivan & Cromwell, the 145-year-old law firm whose clients include Goldman Sachs and Amazon, has said that participation in anti-Israel protests, whether on or off campus, could be a disqualifying factor for job applicants.
Sullivan & Cromwell is working with background check companies to scrutinize students' behavior, look for affiliations with pro-Palestinian student groups, comb social media, and review news reports and footage of protests. Joseph C. Schenker, president of Sullivan & Cromwell, said the firm is looking for explicit examples of anti-Semitism, or statements or slogans that Jews might consider “inflammatory.”
Candidates could face increased scrutiny if they participate in protests where others do use the problematic language, even if they don't. Protesters should be responsible for the actions of those around them, or they will adopt a “mob mentality,” Schenker said. Sullivan & Cromwell declined to say whether it has already dropped candidates because of the policy.
“People are channeling their anger about what's happening in Gaza into racist and anti-Semitic behavior,” Schenker said.
Private employers in the United States can hire whoever they want, with only minor restrictions aimed at preventing discrimination. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, some employers have fired employees for things they did or said.
Sullivan & Cromwell's policy stands out in that it holds applicants responsible for the actions of others and bans commonly used protest slogans. No other Wall Street law firms have publicly discussed similar policies against protesters, but leaders of the four firms said: Several of Sullivan & Cromwell's elite rivals have privately said they are considering implementing similar rules.
To Sullivan & Cromwell's critics, the policy is an attempt to silence criticism of Israel on campus and equate all protesters with those who have taunted and threatened Jewish students.
“When I was recruiting for big law firms, we knew that your social media had to be clean, you couldn't put anything on there that you couldn't defend, you had to be of respectable character to get work at these places,” said Rauda Fawaz, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “This has been done for a long time. Why do we have to have a specific policy about this?”
Fawaz, who worked as an associate at a major law firm after graduating from Columbia Law School in 2022, said many Muslims and Arabs working at major law firms are already hesitant to discuss their views on Israel and its actions.
“Political activism is part of your identity,” she says, “and in a way, that's a good thing, because law students know who they can work for and still maintain their own identity.”
Sullivan & Cromwell does not ask applicants for personally expressed opinions, seeks to exclude everyone who has criticized Israel or condemns protests in general, Schenker said. Schenker and others who support the approach argue it is an extension of existing bans on hate speech in the workplace.
“What's going on here is really just the enforcement of basic workforce decency standards,” said Neil Barr, president of Davis Polk, an international law firm that employs more than 1,000 lawyers. Davis Polk rescinded a student's employment over his affiliation with a group that issued a statement condemning Israel for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Sullivan & Cromwell's selection process comes after students apply for jobs or arrange interviews through top law schools, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and New York University. The firm contracts with background check firm Hirelight to thoroughly review social media and public statements and actions for any conflicts. Applicants are also asked to list any student organizations they are involved in.
Participation in protests or association with groups that Sullivan & Cromwell deems inappropriate will be subject to questioning. Applicants should explain their role, including what they did to stop other protesters from making offensive or harassing comments.
The policy shows that the companies are trying to influence the behavior of people they can't directly control in the coming years, said Roderick A. Ferguson, a professor of American studies at Yale University who has studied universities' responses to student protests. Disqualifying people based on what someone nearby was doing seems to characterize protesters as all having the same mindset, he said.
“How can we assume that this is the case for all students?” Ferguson said. “That mindset can mimic racist thinking, sexist thinking, homophobic thinking, and one example can become everyone's character.”
Schenker said the list of unacceptable slogans and statements includes those he has seen and heard at virtually every pro-Palestinian rally: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The meaning of the slogan is hotly debated: many Palestinians see it as a call for an end to Israeli oppression in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and a plea for equal rights for Israel's Arab citizens, while many Israelis see it as a threat to wipe their country off the map.
Schenker is not Israeli, but has strong ties to the country: His great-grandfather was a leader of Jerusalem's powerful Orthodox Jewish community a century ago, and Schenker himself belongs to a synagogue there. He was in Israel at the time of the October 7 attacks.
He has used his professional position to address anti-Semitism and play a key role in defining acceptable speech in law schools.
Schenker, 67, served as chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell — the firm's highest-ranking position — from 2010 to 2022. He has helped clients buy and sell everything from buildings to sports teams, including Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Frank McCourt, who has said he is interested in buying TikTok.
He has also helped clients navigate divorces and resolve bitter inheritance disputes.
Shortly after Oct. 7, Mr. Schenker wrote a letter signed by about 200 other law firms asking law school deans to urge campus protesters to be civil and to provide better protections for Jewish students. If the schools had done so, Mr. Schenker said, his firm's new policy would not have been necessary.
But to Kenneth S. Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, who studies anti-Semitism, the policy's flaw is that it doesn't distinguish between unpopular opinions and hateful speech. Mr. Stern, who said he believes in the importance of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, believes such rules could eliminate valuable candidates for law firms.
“Some of the chants make me angry, but that's it. I get angry,” he said.
