Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued letters inquiring into the diversity, equity and inclusion practices of 20 large law firms, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas announced Monday.
- In the letters, Lucas requested details from the firms such as application and selection criteria for diverse clerkship programs, hiring and compensation policies and the use of affinity groups, among other items. Lucas gave each firm a deadline of April 15, 2025, by which to submit responses. The announcement includes an email address to which whistleblowers may submit additional information about the firms’ DEI practices.
- None of the firms named by Lucas responded to HR Dive requests for comment. Several former EEOC officials, including four former Democratic commissioners, published a letter to Lucas in which they criticized the letters and requested that they be withdrawn.
Dive Insight:
Lucas’ announcement follows a series of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump directing the federal government to scrutinize law firms — including one of the firms named by Lucas, Perkins Coie — for alleged violations of federal laws such as Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Specifically, Trump’s March 6 order directed the EEOC to investigate whether Perkins Coie and other large firms “reserve certain positions, such as summer associate spots, for individuals of preferred races; promote individuals on a discriminatory basis; permit client access on a discriminatory basis; or provide access to events, trainings, or travel on a discriminatory basis.” A separate executive order issued by Trump on March 14 targeted law firm Paul Weiss, which was not included in Lucas’ list.
Lucas’ letters keyed in on DEI practices that have been the subject of lawsuits in federal courts before. For instance, a number of conservative advocacy groups sued the American Bar Association last month alleging that the organization's diversity clerkship programs violated Title VII. Lucas said that such programs and practices may violate Title VII if they involve actions taken by an employer motivated either in whole or in part by race, sex or other protected characteristics.
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Lucas said. “No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”
In their own letter to Lucas, former EEOC commissioners Chai Feldblum, Jenny Yang, Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows joined other former agency staff in writing about their “grave concerns” about the law firm messages. The former staff said Lucas’ letters “imply a duty to respond without any basis in the laws that EEOC enforces” and raise procedural questions under the Paperwork Reduction Act.
“If you had a sufficient basis in evidence to believe that any of the recipients of your letters had engaged in discrimination in violation of Title VII, you would have had the authority to file a Commissioner charge, signed under penalty of perjury, to begin an investigation,” the former staff wrote. “But Title VII does not authorize the sort of public demand for information encompassed in your letters to these law firms. Nor does Title VII require these firms to respond to your letter or permit EEOC to impose penalties on firms for declining to respond.”
EEOC’s law firm inquiries serve as the latest in an ongoing partisan battle at the agency since Trump’s inauguration. Trump controversially dismissed Burrows and Samuels from their posts prior to the end of the pair’s respective congressionally approved terms. EEOC currently lacks a quorum as a result of their dismissals.
Meanwhile, Lucas’s appointment as acting chair coincided with a number of enforcement shifts at EEOC. These include Lucas’ February statement indicating that the commission would prioritize protecting American workers from national origin bias, which in turn led to a $1.4 million settlement with a Guam hotel and resort over alleged anti-American bias.
