Dive Brief:
- Three law students and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have agreed to end a lawsuit in which the students alleged the agency had been acting outside its authority in threatening to investigate the diversity, equity and inclusion practices of 20 major law firms (DOE 1, et. al. v. EEOC).
- In a stipulation of dismissal filed Monday, EEOC acknowledged response to letters requesting firms’ DEI information was voluntary, that compliance was not mandatory and that most firms did not provide the requested information. It also said it “considers the matter of responding to those letters closed.”
- The Democracy Forward Foundation, a left-leaning legal group that represented the students, characterized the step as a “significant victory,” saying the agency “retreated” and ended “an episode that had threatened the privacy and careers of current and future lawyers.” EEOC did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit stemmed from a set of letters EEOC sent in March 2025 to 20 law firms, requesting information about their DEI practices, allegedly including personally identifiable information about law students who received fellowships and other positions.
In a statement released by then-Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, EEOC noted “concerns” the law firms’ DEI practices may have involved “unlawful disparate treatment” in employment terms, conditions and privileges or “unlawful limiting, segregating and classifying” based on protected characteristics in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” Lucas said at the time. “No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”
In their April lawsuit challenging the letters, the law students said the effort was “part of a broad campaign by the Trump administration to investigate and intimidate law firms, single out individual lawyers and other perceived enemies, and undermine the independence of the legal profession” and that requesting the information exceeded its authority outlined by Congress because it was not based on a specific charge.
“Because our brave clients fought back, the EEOC admitted that its demands were voluntary and closed the matter,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “We encourage all institutions who receive politically motivated investigatory demands and threatening letters from the government to consider if their rights are being violated and what legal options they may have.”
Under the second Trump administration, EEOC has been explicit in targeting DEI programs that it considers unlawful. Days after sending the letters to the law firms, the agency released two technical assistance documents focused on discrimination related to DEI.
More recently, the agency asked a federal court to enforce an administrative subpoena against Nike as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged discrimination against White employees, job applicants and training program participants. That investigation followed a commissioner’s charge filed by Lucas in May 2024.
