A trio of Democrats in the US House and Senate are accusing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s leader of using her position to facilitate deals between Big Law firms and President Donald Trump.
“It appears the EEOC became a key part of how President Trump ‘wield[ed] the investigative and prosecutorial powers of the State to punish and suppress’ certain law firms’ advocacy, in violation of EEOC rules, federal law, and the Constitution,” the letter said. It was signed by Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
They are requesting that the EEOC’s Acting Chair Andrea Lucas send over information including details of meetings she’s had with the White House and documents relating to the settlements that the firms that made. The lawmakers gave Lucas a July 25 deadline to respond.
The Wednesday letter comes after a previous probe into the conditions that some of the country’s wealthiest law firms agreed to meet with Trump to avoid executive orders or other actions from the administration. Scrutiny over the deals continue to mount as four law firms successfully challenged executive orders targeting them in court and partners leave firms that made deals with Trump.
Democratic lawmakers sent another April letter to firms, including Paul Weiss and Willkie Farr, urging them to break their agreements.
Under orders from President Donald Trump, the EEOC on March 17 sought details from 20 law firms on diversity hiring practices. A coalition of Republican-led state attorneys general, including Texas’ Ken Paxton (R), about two weeks later asked the same firms to send them documentation about diversity efforts. Goodwin Procter sent the EEOC more than 200 pages detailing how it axed relationships with major diversity, equity, and inclusion nonprofit organizations that seek to diversify the legal profession. Other firms’ responses remain unclear.
“By sending these ‘letters of inquiry’ to the law firms and then publicizing them widely, you appear to have violated EEOC rules and federal law,” the letter said.
The EEOC said it has received and is reviewing the letter. “We are committed to working with Congress to ensure the vigorous enforcement of the federal laws that protect equal employment opportunity in America’s workplaces,” an EEOC spokesperson said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. Trump placed Lucas as acting EEOC chair early on in his second term. She’s been nominated to serve another term at the EEOC.
The EEOC’s March 17 letters to the 20 firms requested contact information for “all law students or attorneys who applied to be hired” since 2019. It also asked for the names, genders, and races of job applicants, as well as law school and GPA data. The letters also requested information on clients’ diversity initiatives, which firms refused to divulge.
Six of the firms that received the EEOC letter struck deals with the White House to end the EEOC probes—Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, A&O Shearman, Skadden, and Milbank. The EEOC withdrew its requests for diversity information from the six firms after they made an agreement with Trump for free legal services as a way to avoid punitive executive orders.
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