Meet Danielle Peck, the (now former) Legal Recruiting Director at Biglaw firm Holland & Knight. She’s about to learn that life comes at you fast — especially when you’re caught on camera throwing around a racial slur… with a particularly hard -R. Now, we don’t know exactly what led up to Peck’s confrontation with the driver of the truck, but one thing is abundantly clear: using the n-word is never acceptable, no matter the circumstances.
That is supercharged when you think about Peck’s role at the firm as the person responsible for guiding the firm’s hiring and representing its culture and values to law students and prospective associates. This problematic behavior is profoundly at odds with the firm’s stated values — even in a post- Trump’s attacks on DEI world.
Let’s see what she acts like away from the respectability of Biglaw.
Shameful. I suppose “racist tirade” is not quite the brand message Holland & Knight is going for because the firm provided the following statement, “The language used in this video is completely unacceptable. We moved quickly to investigate this situation as soon as we became aware of the video. As a result of that process, the individual is no longer employed with the Firm.”
Remember it’s 2025, there’s no such thing as a “private” outburst. Lawyers and legal professionals operate in a world where reputations travel fast and hypocrisy even faster.
Firing the recruiting director was the easy part. The harder work — ensuring that every person involved in the hiring process reflects the values the firm says it stands for — is what comes next.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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