The consequences of discrimination follow transgender students and their classmates into the legal profession, warned the American Bar Association in an amicus brief that urged a federal appellate court to find that such unfairness violates federal civil rights.
“Transgender students who suffer academically are less likely to pursue a legal education, depriving the bar of voices capable of speaking on behalf of those marginalized for their gender,” said ABA president Linda Klein of Baker Donelson wrote in the brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. “Moreover, their classmates who have become lawyers are left less able to empathize with, and to provide effective representation for, their transgender or gender-nonconforming clients.”
