The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating Kirkland & Ellis, Ropes & Gray, and Simpson Thacher, among other top law firms, for discrimination in their diversity programs.
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Acting Chair Andrea Lucas said Monday. “No one is above the law—and certainly not the private bar.”
The full list of firms facing EEOC investigations are:
- A&O Shearman
- Debevoise & Plimpton
- Cooley LLP
- Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
- Goodwin Procter
- Hogan Lovells
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- McDermott Will & Emery
- Milbank LLP
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Morrison & Foerster
- Perkins Coie
- Reed Smith
- Ropes & Gray
- Sidley Austin
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- White & Case
- WilmerHale
WilmerHale, known recently for representing Democrats in elections cases, declined to comment. The other firms did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump is ratcheting up his war on prominent law firms over their political work and ties to his perceived enemies. Trump issued executive orders aimed at Paul Weiss and Perkins Coie—threatening government contracts for their clients and suspending security clearances—as well as a memo rescinding clearances for lawyers at Covington & Burling.
The DEI probes follow a March 6 executive order in which Trump ordered the EEOC to look at “large, influential, or industry leading” law firms and their “compliance with race-based and sex-based non-discrimination laws.” Trump directed the EEOC to lead the investigation and instructed the Justice Department to “take any additional actions the Attorney General deems appropriate in light of the evidence uncovered.”
The EEOC in letters to the firms requested expansive hiring and contact information for “all law students or attorneys who applied to be hired” since 2019. It wants the names, genders, and races of those applicants, as well as law school and GPA information.
The letters also direct firms to provide similar information for lawyers promoted to partner, including whether they were members of law firm affinity groups or previously took part in diversity internships or related programs. The firms have until April 15 to respond.
It’s not clear how the EEOC determined which firms to target, although several of those on the list are among the country’s largest. Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster made changes to their diversity fellowship programs—removing race-based eligibility requirements—after being sued in 2023 by diversity foe Edward Blum.
The EEOC is exceeding its authority with the probes, said Jenny Yang, who led the agency during the Obama administration.
“There is no basis in the statutes that EEOC enforces for this request,” Yang said. “I am not aware of any authority that would require law firms to respond to these letters.”
The EEOC letter also asks the firms to provide information on their clients’ “diversity requirements” for outside counsel, including by identifying those that provide incentive-based compensation for law firms that meet “representation goals.”
History of Change
Law firms have long struggled to diversify their ranks, even after being urged by corporate clients.
“The fact is that the legal industry is not an industry where all talent thrives,” said Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. “Lawyers of Color and LGBTQ+ lawyers are still significantly underrepresented in law firms, particularly at the partnership level where systemic bias cause both cohorts to convert to partnership at far lower rates than their majority peers.”
White lawyers accounted for about 77% of attorneys nationwide in 2022, down from 86% a decade earlier, according to a survey by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. About 87% of all law firm equity partners—the highest-paid rung, which includes key decision makers—identified as white, down from 93% over the same time period.
Lucas, a Trump appointee to the agency in 2020, was tapped by Trump on Jan. 20 to serve as acting chair. Her priorities include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” she said in a day-one statement.
Trump later fired two Democratic commissioners, putting the EEOC in a position where it lacks quorum to vote on policy changes or to file most lawsuits. Lucas has moved quickly to shift the agency’s priorities in ways she can without holding a vote.
The EEOC and Lucas did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the letters to the law firms.
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