Trump Administration Expands Fight With Big Law Firms to DEI Practices

The Trump administration sent letters to 20 major law firms saying it has concerns about their diversity programs and employment practices, in the administration’s latest salvo against some of the country’s biggest legal firms.

Andrea Lucas, the Trump-appointed acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said the firms have diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, practices that could be illegal under the federal civil-rights laws that protect workers.

The letters seeking more information about the firms’ DEI practices went to some of the largest law firms in the U.S., including Wall Street leaders Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, and Skadden. Representatives for the firms weren’t immediately available for comment.

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The commission also said it was also creating an email address where whistleblowers could send information about potentially unlawful DEI practices at law firms.

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The EEOC letters to the firms cite specific hiring initiatives, public statements about goals to increase the number of women and people of color, and diversity work that their clients touted in previous years.

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