STATEMENT: Equal Rights Advocates Challenges EEOC Chair’s Overreach in Targeting Law Firm Diversity Programs

March 28. 2025

For Immediate Release
Mar 28, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

Statement from Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, on EEOC Chair’s Overreach in Targeting Law Firm Diversity Programs

Women’s rights organization joins coalition defending businesses’ lawful workplace inclusion efforts

March 28, 2025  – Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) has joined a coalition of civil rights organizations in challenging Acting Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas’s recent letters to 20 major law firms requesting extensive information about their diversity programs—two of which recently sued the EEOC for its unlawful overreach.

The coalition’s letter calls on Chair Lucas to immediately withdraw both the March 17 letters and a related March 19 guidance document, asserting that these actions exceed her authority and create confusion about well-established workplace practices.

“Chair Lucas is improperly using EEOC letterhead to pressure businesses over programs that help them comply with civil rights laws,” said Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates. “These actions create a misleading impression of official agency authority and could intimidate employers into abandoning efforts that support workplace fairness.”

The coalition emphasized that Chair Lucas lacks unilateral power to demand this information or change the agency’s position on these workplace practices. Their letter points out that courts have repeatedly recognized employers’ right to implement diversity and inclusion programs, which help prevent discrimination and fulfill obligations under federal law.

The coalition’s letter notes that the legal profession continues to face significant representation gaps, with women comprising only 28% of law firm partners and people of color comprising only 12%.

“We cannot allow the political intimidation of these firms to undermine programs ensuring compliance with civil rights laws,” said Farrell. “While the goal of the Trump Administration may well be to exclude women and people of color from the highest paid work, we won’t let a single official’s overreach roll back hard-fought gains of women and people of color in the legal profession.”

To request an interview with ERA experts, contact Blake Case at [email protected] or (601) 832-6079.

Equal Rights Advocates fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country. Since 1974, they have been fighting on the front lines of social justice to protect and advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of all gender identities through groundbreaking legal cases and bold legislation that sets the stage for the rest of the nation. www.equalrights.org