Employers are contending with a version of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission they’ve never seen before, attorneys at Duane Morris said during a virtual presentation Tuesday.
“Change is the new normal, and this is not your father’s, mother’s or grandparents’ EEOC,” said Gerald Maatman, partner at the firm. “It’s a very new agency that we’re seeing in front of us.”
EEOC’s 2025 enforcement data show it pursued more religious and pregnancy discrimination cases than in prior years, while disability discrimination remained a frequent type of filing, Maatman said. The agency’s data also showed a “heavy dose” of retaliation cases, he noted.
Taken together with the commission’s legal activity so far in 2026, the data suggest EEOC will continue to prioritize disability, religion and race discrimination claims through the second half fiscal year 2026, said Jennifer Riley, partner at Duane Morris.
Riley and Maatman specifically highlighted the agency’s attempt to enforce an administrative subpoena against Nike as a signal of its priorities. EEOC sought information on Nike’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs, requesting employee records and descriptions of the company’s efforts to increase representation of racial and ethnic minorities.
“In my 40 years of defending employers dealing with EEOC investigations and lawsuits, this was a very unique situation and kind of the tip of the spear of the Trump-led EEOC championing attacks on DEI programs,” Maatman said of the Nike case.
The case law on EEOC subpoena enforcement appears favorable to the commission, he added, so courts are likely to order employers to comply.
Additional shifts can be seen in how current EEOC leadership has pivoted away from the agency’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which Maatman said essentially serves as a blueprint for the agency over a four-year period. That document was supplemented by the 2024-2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan, which outlined six subject matter enforcement priorities.
For example, the strategic plan called on EEOC to file bigger, targeted lawsuits seeking widespread equitable relief and prosecute systemic “pattern and practice” discrimination cases affecting large groups of workers. The SEP, meanwhile, identified protection of “vulnerable workers” — such as immigrant workers, workers with certain disabilities and LGBTQ+ workers — as one of the agency’s six priorities.
Under Chair Andrea Lucas, EEOC has instead prioritized enforcement of “reverse bias” claims against majority-group workers, including White male workers, Maatman said. Those efforts also extend to American workers who the agency alleges have suffered national origin discrimination, said Daniel Spencer, partner at Duane Morris.
There’s also been an emphasis on pre-litigation mediation, conciliation and settlements, from which it obtained $528 million from employers in 2025. Per the agency, this the highest such amount obtained in a fiscal year in EEOC history. Even so, the commission collected $660 million in total monetary relief, slightly down from 2024’s nearly $700 million recovery total. According to Maatman, the split between pre- and post-litigation recovery also shows how the agency’s tactics are shifting.
“The EEOC is front-end loading its settlements more prior to filing the lawsuits, certainly threatening to file lawsuits, and getting a lesser amount of money in terms of the settlements for its merits lawsuits,” he said.
