Jonathan Bresser, a student at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago filed a lawsuit against the NFL’s Chicago Bears after they posted they were looking to fill a position for a “legal diversity fellow” and he claimed he was denied because he is a white man. The football team settled the case on Aug. 27 at an in-person settlement conference.
According to Forbes, Bresser applied for the fellowship in November 2023. The listing stated that the applicant must be from a local school and would be working with the Chicago Bears over the summer. It said the Fellow would “have the opportunity to work with the Club’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) department on a variety of the Club’s DEI goals, initiatives and priorities.” Yet, it also stated that the applicant should be a person of color and/or female law student.
Bresser made sure to mention that his qualifications were that he worked more than two years as a litigation paralegal at Trent Law Firm, P.C. He also stated his commitment to diversity issues.
He received notification via email that the team denied his application on Jan. 5. They stated that they had “chosen to pursue other applicants whose experience and qualifications more closely match our needs.” Bressier, unsatisfied with the reasoning, filed a lawsuit on March 11, alleging the Bears had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and its Illinois equivalent by rejecting his application because he is a white man.
Bresser’s suit included a printout from his LinkedIn profile that revealed that someone from the Bears looked at the profile, which had his picture embedded. The speculation is that the decision was made based on the photo showing a white man. He stated in the paperwork that he received the rejection shortly after it was shown that someone from the team checked out his profile.
Bresser’s attorney confirmed the settlement but did not disclose the result due to confidentiality. The Bears did not respond to a request for comment.
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