Anti-Israel law students at Harvard conspired to smear numerous law firms that have stood opposed to anti-Israel efforts on college campuses, an investigation by the conservative Washington Free Beacon found.
Harvard’s student-led chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a left-wing legal advocacy group with chapters around the country, held a “Big Law, Big Secrets: Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon” earlier this month on campus. The event, led by a student with a reported history of anti-Israel activity, was meant to “gather data to edit the Wikipedia pages of Big Law firms to reflect cases they have recently argued.”
Two days later, over a dozen law firms that have been critical of antisemitism at Harvard and other college campuses, including some that rescinded job offers from Harvard law students over it, saw their Wikipedia pages amended.
The changes were done by a Wikipedia account linked to another Harvard law student with a history of anti-Israel advocacy, the Free Beacon found, and the changes effectively sought to make the law firms look bad in the eyes of liberals. Some changes also sought to soften language critical of campus antisemitism.
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For instance, a section on the Wikipedia page for the firm Davis Polk, which describes cases it has worked on, was changed from “Race Relations” to “Defense of Segregation.” The firm’s page also saw the addition of a lengthy section about its “Representation of Purdue Pharma,” a pharmaceutical company blamed by Democrats for playing a part in the opioid crisis.
In 2023, Davis Polk rescinded a job offer it gave to a Harvard student over the student’s leadership in organizing anti-Israel protests on campus. It was also among 100 law firms that sent a November 2023 letter to Harvard urging it to clamp down on campus antisemitism after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against innocent Israelis.
Jones Day, which also signed the letter, had its Wikipedia page changed to include additions about it defending Walmart against allegations of overprescribing opioids, Second Amendment rights and “racial gerrymandering.”
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Latham & Watkins, another signer, saw a section about its work on a case related to the Chevron deference principle changed to say the firm “eroded agencies’ abilities to protect civil rights, human health and the environment, and other critical public functions.”
Jenner & Block, another signer of the November letter, saw a criticism about its representation of Uber in a suit over whether its drivers should be considered full-time employees or contractors added to its page.
Meanwhile, the edit history for some of the firms that signed on to the letter, such as Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, showed efforts to dull language about what occurred on college campuses after Hamas’ attacks. For instance, the Harvard law student-linked account changed “amid a wave of antisemitism in the United States,” to “amid a wave of Gaza war protests in the United States” on the firm’s page. Additionally, “antisemitic incidents at elite U.S. law schools” was changed to “pro-Palestine protests at elite U.S. law schools.”
Overall, 14 law firms saw changes such as these, according to the Free Beacon’s investigation. When reached for comment, Harvard University spokesperson Jeff Neal said the Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon was organized by a student-run organization “and does not represent the views of Harvard Law School.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the National Lawyers Guild’s Harvard chapter and its national organization but did not receive a response.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism froze over $2.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard. The administration has indicated it could take away as much as $9 billion if Harvard does not meet its requirements on antisemitism and other federal directives from Trump.
The Trump administration is also looking at ways to strip Harvard’s tax-exempt status after the school said it would not comply with a number of the president’s demands related to campus antisemitism, DEI and other policy priorities the president has laid out during his first 100 days in office.