Court Opinion

ID: 9429620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:22.877561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:20.543415
License: Public Domain

Justice Powell,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion holding that petitioner’s complaint alleges a violation of Title VII and that the motion to dismiss should not have been granted. Petitioner’s complaint avers that the law firm violated its promise that she would be considered for partnership on a “fair and equal basis” within the time span that associates generally are so considered.1 Petitioner is entitled to the opportunity to prove these averments.
I write to make clear my understanding that the Court’s opinion should not be read as extending Title VII to the management of a law firm by its partners. The reasoning of the Court’s opinion does not require that the relationship among partners be characterized as an “employment” relationship to which Title VII would apply. The relationship among law partners differs markedly from that between employer and employee — including that between the partnership and its associates.2 The judgmental and sensitive decisions that must be made among the partners embrace a wide range of subjects.3 The essence of the law partnership is the common *80conduct of a shared enterprise. The relationship among law partners contemplates that decisions important to the partnership normally will be made by common agreement, see, e. g., Memorandum of Agreement, King & Spalding, App. 153-164 (respondent’s partnership agreement), or consent among the partners.
Respondent contends that for these reasons application of Title VII to the decision whether to admit petitioner to the firm implicates the constitutional right to association. But here it is alleged that respondent as an employer is obligated by contract to consider petitioner for partnership on equal terms without regard to sex. I agree that enforcement of this obligation, voluntarily assumed, would impair no right of association.4
*81In admission decisions made by law firms, it is now widely recognized — as it should be — that in fact neither race nor sex is relevant. The qualities of mind, capacity to reason logically, ability to work under pressure, leadership, and the like are unrelated to race or sex. This is demonstrated by the success of women and minorities in law schools, in the practice of law, on the bench, and in positions of community, state, and national leadership. Law firms — and, of course, society — are the better for these changes.

 Law firms normally require a period of associateship as a prerequisite to being eligible to “make” partner. This need not be an inflexible period, as firms may vary from the norm and admit to partnership earlier than, or subsequent to, the customary period of service. Also, as the complaint recognizes, many firms make annual evaluations of the performances of associates, and usually are free to terminate employment on the basis of these evaluations.

 Of course, an employer may not evade the strictures of Title VII simply by labeling its employees as “partners.” Law partnerships usually have many of the characteristics that I describe generally here.

 These decisions concern such matters as participation in profits and other types of compensation; work assignments; approval of commitments in bar association, civic, or political activities; questions of billing; accept-*80anee of new clients; questions of conflicts of interest; retirement programs; and expansion policies. Such decisions may affect each partner of the firm. Divisions of partnership profits, unlike shareholders’ rights to dividends, involve judgments as to each partner’s contribution to the reputation and success of the firm. This is true whether the partner’s participation in profits is measured in terms of points or percentages, combinations of salaries and points, salaries and bonuses, and possibly in other ways.

 The Court’s opinion properly reminds us that “invidious private discrimination . . . has never been accorded affirmative constitutional protections.” Ante, at 78. This is not to say, however, that enforcement of laws that ban discrimination will always be without cost to other values, including constitutional rights. Such laws may impede the exercise of personal judgment in choosing one’s associates or colleagues. See generally Fallon, To Each According to His Ability, From None According to His Race: The Concept of Merit in the Law of Antidiscrimination, 60 Boston Univ. L. Rev. 815, 844-860 (1980). Impediments to the exercise of one’s right to choose one’s associates can violate the right of association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Cf. NAACP v. Button, 371 U. S. 415 (1963); NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449 (1958).
With respect to laws that prevent discrimination, much depends upon the standards by which the courts examine private decisions that are an exercise of the right of association. For example, the Courts of Appeals generally have acknowledged that respect for academic freedom requires some deference to the judgment of schools and universities as to the qualifications of professors, particularly those considered for tenured positions. Lieberman v. Gant, 630 F. 2d 60, 67-68 (CA2 1980); Kunda v. Muhlenberg *81College, 621 F. 2d 532, 547-548 (CA3 1980). Cf. University of California Regents v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 265, 311-315 (1978) (opinion of JUSTICE Powell). The present ease, before us on a motion to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, does not present such an issue.