The aftermath of this summer's Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College continues to gather momentum after the court reversed course on decades of precedent supporting affirmative action programs in college and university admissions. The ruling, which bars schools from considering an applicant's race as one of many factors influencing admissions decisions, has rapidly escalating implications for workplace hiring practices and DEI programs.

For the legal industry, which already lags in representation for people of color at all levels of firm practice, this decision will have a negative impact on law school diversity and subsequent law firm candidate pipelines as demonstrated by those states already barring affirmative action (see California).

To counter this, law firms will need to expand recruitment efforts to reach a broader pool of talent and utilize technology solutions to more accurately and equitably assess talent. When many firms are facing increased budget scrutiny and financial performance pressure, technology solutions that increase the scope and efficiency of recruiting as well as the accuracy and fairness of hiring are a key resource successfully used by many industries, but still virtually untapped in the legal industry.