Kirkland & Ellis partner Michael Jones graduated from Dillard University, a historically black college in New Orleans. So when the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law asked him to handle a $2 billion lawsuit against the state of Maryland on behalf of its historically black colleges and universities, he couldn’t resist.
The first-of-its-kind case, brought on behalf of students and alumni of four historically black institutions, asserts that Maryland failed to comply with a 2000 agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to provide adequate funding to the colleges and universities.
