The final chapters of part three of Equal

12. Time to Settle

The case settled in the spring of 1977. The press coverage said that Sullivan & Cromwell had been “brought to its knees.” The firm agreed to supervision by Rabb of its recruiting, interviewing, payment and treatment of women. The firm also paid $30,000 in legal fees, $2,000 of which went to Blank for her own work. A case against Rogers & Wells settled for $40,000 in fees and a hiring quota.

Blank and her classmates had brought 10 complaints to the NYC Commission on Human Rights, and five led to settlements.

Seven years later the issue of whether law firms were bound by discrimination laws in partnership decisions would reach the Supreme Court. At that time, Sullivan & Cromwell would have 75 partners and one woman.


13. The Chief Justice's Second Draft

The issue of law firm discrimination in partnership opportunities was back before the Supreme Court in the 1980s against King & Spaulding of Atlanta, Georgia. One of its senior attorneys was Griffin Bell, a former federal judge and former attorney general of the U.S.

Betsy Hirshon was only the second woman ever hired by the firm. The first woman was hired in 1944 and never made partner. King passed Hirshon over for partner and forced her to leave after 7 years.

The firm argued not only that Title VII did not cover partnerships but the First Amendment granted law partners freedom of association and expression. The firm prevailed in District Court and before a three-judge panel in the court of appeals. It was supported by the U.S. Attorney general.

But then came the bathing suit contest, with the prize to a summer intern with “the body we'd like to see more of.” The Wall Street Journal picked up the story.

The justices voted in conference unanimously against the law firm and Chief Justice Warren Burger took the opinion for himself. (In 1971 he had delivered a letter of resignation to the White House over the issue of appointing a woman to the Supreme Court.)

Burger angered the court by circulating an opinion suggesting that partners might not be employees and thus exempt from Title VII. He suggested that Hirshon's rights would be limited to those available by contract.

The rest of the court rose up. Justice Brennan circulated a draft opinion attacking the “novel theory” that petitioners must prove a common-law contract to receive the rights afforded by federal law.

Burger capitulated. He discussed contract rights but conceded in a footnote they did not apply. But he did overrule the lower courts. George Will wrote in the Washington Post that the opinion said to King & Spaulding, “give me a break.”