BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "Not a single minority or female was mentioned or quoted in Balch & Bingham’s news release highlighting a program allegedly set up to help women and minority-owned businesses,” said Ernesto Pichardo, a long-time Civil Rights activist and Chairman of the Board of the Consejo de Latinos Unidos (CDLU), a public charity and advocacy group.
“Balch & Bingham’s all-white leadership appears to be engaged in a publicity stunt while refusing to apologize to the African-American community for alleged racist misconduct and criminal acts by the firm,” Pichardo added.
In 2018, a senior equity partner at Balch was convicted of six federal crimes in a bribery scheme to suppress African-Americans in North Birmingham from having their toxic property tested by the EPA.
When reviewing the fine-print, the CDLU believes that Balch’s “Business Boost” publicity stunt appears to promote and boost discrimination. Balch appears to suggest that the firm is arrogantly ignoring their alleged immoral, unethical, and racist conduct.
Beyond financial thresholds of the program, Balch’s news release declares, “Inclusion is subject to additional requirements, and acceptance will be determined on a case-by-case basis.”
Pichardo lambasted the firm, saying “In other words, Balch & Bingham reserves the right to discriminate and exclude minority-owned businesses based on unknown requirements and determinations. Instead of fighting systemic racism, Balch appears to be affirming systemic racism.”
The publicity stunt has highlighted Balch’s alleged racist misconduct and refusal to apologize. The CDLU noted:
- Of the over 200 attorneys at Balch & Bingham only six attorneys are African-American or people of color. Engaging in alleged “tokenism,” each one of them is located in a completely different Balch office. In 2019, Balch let go of their only African-American female attorney in Birmingham who headed diversity efforts at the firm.
- Balch & Bingham has yet to apologize to the African-American community of North Birmingham for the bribery scheme targeting poor African-American children and suppressing African-Americans from having their toxic property tested by the EPA. A top Balch partner was sentenced to five years in federal prison in 2018 for the crimes.
- Balch has yet to apologize for their role in the alleged abhorrent “whites-only” land grab in Vincent, Alabama that impacted the descendants of slaves.
- Balch has yet to apologize for their alleged involvement in the “divide and dilute” effort against African-American voters in 2011.
- In the 1960’s, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, one of their top partners was a staunch racial segregationist who belonged to racist Alabama Governor George Wallace’s inner-circle. Balch has yet to apologize for their past ties to segregation and alleged racists.
“Balch & Bingham suffers from blinding hubris. No one should believe a law firm that refuses to apologize for their alleged racist conduct and whose lawyers called lying to or providing false legal advice to a client a ‘legal service.’ Eighteen of eighteen major lobbying clients in Washington, D.C. have terminated Balch. A publicity stunt will not heal the wounds, only deepen them,” Pichardo concluded.
In 1993, Pichardo won a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision for religious freedom and Civil Rights after his Afro-Caribbean faith came under attack due to blatant intolerance and discrimination by racists and religious bigots.
Pichardo has been a member of the Board of Directors of the CDLU since 2003, a public charity and advocacy group that launched an accountability and education project in 2017 about Balch & Bingham’s transgressions.
Contact:
Camila Mendoza
+1323-264-5889
info@cdlu.org