Published by JWeekly on 4/4/2025 The legal team suing UC Berkeley over antisemitism claims in federal court marked two intermediate wins over the past week, according to one of its top attorneys. Willkie Farr & Gallagher, a prestigious law firm with offices worldwide that counts former second gentleman Doug Emhoff among its partners, joined the team representing the plaintiffs. Meanwhile, the judge in the case ruled that the allegations of Cal violating a series of civil rights laws were “plausible” and allowed the case to move forward. Kenneth Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the pro-Israel Jewish civil rights firm that spearheaded the lawsuit, lauded Willkie in a phone call with J. “Willkie Farr is one of the best and most formidable law firms in the United States. Their size and strength are entirely appropriate for the task,” Marcus said. “There are no discovery matters that will be too great for this team. We will truly be able to hold the University of California accountable.” The lawsuit was originally filed in November 2023 and was expanded in May 2024. The plaintiffs are the Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, a group within the Brandeis Center made up of Jewish college students, parents, faculty and others “who have personally been aggrieved by, or have by association been impacted by, anti-Semitism and discrimination in higher education and K-12,” the lawsuit states. At the core of the complaint is the allegation that Berkeley administrators have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty from rampant antisemitism on campus since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel. Much of the antisemitism has masqueraded as anti-Zionism, the plaintiffs argue. Mentioned in the suit are assaults at the spring 2024 Gaza tent encampment, the obstruction of walkways by pro-Palestinian protesters, an antisemitic cartoon targeting the law school dean, a violent protest at a pro-Israel event in Zellerbach Playhouse in February 2024, and the decision by student groups at the law school to ban speakers who support Zionism, which predated Oct. 7, 2023, but continued afterward, the lawsuit alleges. “Since October 7, 2023, the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Jewish students at UC Berkeley have been the targets of unrelenting harassment and physical violence, all of which has been widely publicized and is well-known to University officials,” the complaint states. In his order issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge James Donato with the Northern District of California dismissed some of the plaintiffs’ claims but ruled that others can proceed, including allegations that Cal ran afoul of the equal protection and free exercise clauses of the Constitution as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The complaint “alleges a series of events unfolding over the course of several months on campus, which are said to have been precipitated by a campus culture hostile to Jewish students and professors,” Donato’s order states. “Taken as a whole, the [complaint] plausibly alleges disparate treatment with discriminatory intent and policy enforcement that is ‘not generally applicable.’” Donato dismissed three counts, including one that focused on the 2022 ban on Zionist speakers adopted by several law student groups. The count regarding that ban was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence that Zionists were actually turned away, Donato wrote in his order. Cal declined to comment on the lawsuit via a spokesperson, who wrote in a text message on Friday, “We will save our comments for the courtroom.” Willkie Farr is one of a handful of top law firms targeted recently by President Donald Trump due to its legal representation of groups and policies he opposes. According to the New York Times, Willkie Farr has been in negotiations with the administration in recent weeks in order to head off a potentially damaging executive order targeting the firm. On Tuesday, Trump announced Willkie Farr had agreed to a series of concessions, including ending certain diversity policies and lending pro-bono legal assistance to causes that Trump supports. Marcus said the Brandeis Center had been in communication with Willkie Farr “for a while” and that the firm had taken on antisemitism cases in the past. The timing of its decision to join the legal team was based on the “phase of litigation,” he said. Willkie Farr filed a motion to join the team on March 28. “It is entirely normal to reconsider staffing issues as one moves into discovery,” Marcus said, referring to an often labor-intensive pretrial stage when parties exchange evidence.