The Daily Fuckup

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 17, 2025, sent letters to 20 law firms asking for information about their DEI-related employment practices. In a public statement, EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas said the letters were based on publicly available information and flagged possible concerns under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ([eeoc.gov](https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-acting-chair-andrea-lucas-sends-letters-20-law-firms-requesting-information-about-dei))

The agency said it was looking at whether some employment practices, including those labeled or framed as DEI, might amount to unlawful disparate treatment or to unlawful limiting, segregating, or classifying based on race, sex or other protected characteristics. The EEOC also said Title VII does not contain a “diversity” exception. ([eeoc.gov](https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-acting-chair-andrea-lucas-sends-letters-20-law-firms-requesting-information-about-dei))

The firms named in the letters include A & O Shearman, Debevoise & Plimpton, Cooley, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Goodwin Procter, Hogan Lovells, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, McDermott Will & Emery, Milbank, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Morrison & Foerster, Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, Ropes & Gray, Sidley Austin, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, White & Case, and WilmerHale. The EEOC posted the letters and the firm list on its website the same day. ([eeoc.gov](https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-acting-chair-andrea-lucas-sends-letters-20-law-firms-requesting-information-about-dei))

Lucas said the agency was prepared to investigate discrimination “anywhere it may rear its head,” including at elite law firms, and added that “no one is above the law.” The letters do not themselves resolve whether any firm violated federal law; they put the firms on notice that the EEOC is seeking information and may follow up. ([eeoc.gov](https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-acting-chair-andrea-lucas-sends-letters-20-law-firms-requesting-information-about-dei))

The move immediately drew criticism from some labor and civil-rights advocates, who said it fit a broader administration effort to put pressure on employers over DEI programs. But the official EEOC action on March 17 was narrower than the rhetoric around it: a public request for information from 20 law firms, grounded in the agency’s stated view that some DEI-framed practices may run afoul of Title VII. ([eeoc.gov](https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-acting-chair-andrea-lucas-sends-letters-20-law-firms-requesting-information-about-dei))