Robin Keller was a retired equity partner who worked for Hogan Lovells, an international law firm with almost 2,500 attorneys. (Although technically “retired,” she still worked for the firm.) Keller was summarily fired in June after daring to say that she thought the Dobbs decision, which returned the question of abortion to the states, was correctly decided and that making abortion more difficult might save Black lives.

Keller’s story emerged today in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece (which is behind a paywall). The narrative is riveting and depressing.

After Dobbs was decided, the firm convened an online conference for its female employees, intended to be a “safe space” in which they could reveal their feelings. That, of course, was like the rattle of a snake or the roar of a lion before it pounces, alerting all and sundry that Hogan Lovells is entirely under leftist control. (Indeed, Hogan Lovells was already on the transgender bandwagon in 2016.)

Image made using Justice from Freepik and Pile o’ Broken Dolls by Brett L. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sadly, Keller didn’t read the signs correctly and actually thought that women were going to be safe voicing their opinions about Dobbs, whether pro or con. Those who spoke, she said, were consistently anti-Dobbs. However, because she was in a “safe space,” Keller voiced an opposing view:

I noted that many jurists and commentators believed Roe had been wrongly decided. I said that the court was right to remand the issue to the states. I added that I thought abortion-rights advocates had brought much of the pushback against Roe on themselves by pushing for extreme policies. I referred to numerous reports of disproportionately high rates of abortion in the black community, which some have called a form of genocide. I said I thought this was tragic.

Before I go further, let me summarize: A lawyer speaking to lawyers addressed the legal merits of a Supreme Court decision and expressed sadness over the enormous number of deaths in the Black community. You can predict what came next:

The outrage was immediate. The next speaker called me a racist and demanded that I leave the meeting. Other participants said they “lost their ability to breathe” on hearing my comments.

Naturally, because all these lawyers had been trained in academia, someone made a formal complaint. The firm promptly de-personed and defamed Keller:

Later that day, Hogan Lovells suspended my contracts, cut off my contact with clients, removed me from email and document systems, and emailed all U.S. personnel saying that a forum participant had made “anti-Black comments” and was suspended pending an investigation. The firm also released a statement to the legal website Above the Law bemoaning the devastating impact my views had on participants in the forum—most of whom were lawyers participating in a call convened expressly for the purpose of discussing a controversial legal and political topic. Someone leaked my name to the press.

Keller filed her own complaint, and the firm hired another law firm to investigate. That firm concluded that bemoaning the deaths of millions of Black babies was harassment.

In her opinion piece, Keller says that she was shocked at how quickly Hogan Lovells caved to its woke employees. But as I pointed out, above, the mere fact that it convened a “safe space” meeting means that the firm had long ago caved to the wokesters. I can tell you from experience that there’s no coward like a law firm’s managing partner.

Meanwhile, Keller continues to be on the receiving edge of outrage. Above the Law, the website to which she referred, is probably the most-read legal gossip website in America. Within hours of Keller’s opinion piece getting published, it was back again, claiming Keller has “problematic views on abortion and race.” Apparently, it’s racist when a White person mourns the death of Black babies. (The current estimate is that about 20 million Black babies have been killed since 1973, which is an unimaginable and self-inflicted racial Holocaust.)

The same essay argues that Keller deserved what came her way because “She specifically blamed Black women for GENOCIDE,” meaning Keller is not only racist but also misogynistic. But really, who else is responsible? It’s not White women who aborted 20 million Black babies.

As for Hogan Lovells, according to Above the Law, it released a perfect Orwellian statement in response to the Wall Street Journal opinion piece:

As a firm we fully encourage our people to share their views on important issues that matter to them, but we expect our people to conduct themselves in accordance with firm policies. We value our differences, which make us stronger as a firm.

The unspoken caveat, of course, is that sharing different ideas is allowed only when those ideas are identical to the firm’s prevailing political correctness.

I hope Keller sues the firm for wrongful termination, defamation, and anything else that will support the facts. With luck, she’ll bankrupt the firm in the process. That’s the only way to break the back of wokeness in the corporate world.