From News Dispatches

NewsIndia-Times, Mar. 29, 2002

NEW YORK: The Indo-American Lawyers Association (IALA) has written to the Malibu, Calif.-based Pepperdine University School of Law, questioning the criteria it has spelt out in an advertisement to recruit a legal research and writing professor.

The advertisement, published on March 5 in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a daily legal paper in California, said the Pepperdine School of Law "reserves the right" to recruit people who support the goals and mission of the institution and also the right "to prefer co-religionists."

In the letter to Shiela McDonald, the academic support specialist at the Pepperdine School of Law, IALA said that while it respected every religion, the law school's authorities had no right to insult the religion of others by claiming it was providing "equal opportunity employment."

The letter also sought to know what relevance a person's religion or level of orthodoxy had to his/her ability to teach legal writing and research.

The letter faulted the advertisement saying that for a law school meant to train students to be analytical lawyers and protect individuals from bigotry, the ad reveals "more equal" standards where the Law School "reserves the right" to promote persons of a particular religion.

The letter suggested that the school should remove the "first preference" criterion not only from this particular advertisement, but also from all other jobs that do not entail religious responsibilities. It added that the advertisement proves wrong the philosophy of "equal protection" that forms the bedrock of the nation and which the school seeks to preach and uphold. The Pepperdine Law School, which is affiliated to the Churches of Christ, is accredited to the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.