Latest of Trump’s Attacks on Law Firms Targets Several in Bay Area Over DEI

A federal civil rights agency sent letters to 20 major law firms this week, including three based in the Bay Area, requesting detailed information about hiring practices and diversity, equity and inclusion policies — the latest move in the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on law firms.

In the letters, Trump’s newly appointed head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suggests the firms’ employment practices, “including those labeled or framed as DEI,” may be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.

“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement. “No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”

The scrutiny follows other recent federal actions against law firms that have represented Trump’s political opponents or participated in investigations of him. The targeted firms include Morrison Foerster in San Francisco, Cooley in Palo Alto and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which has an office in Redwood City, where the EEOC sent its letter.

“It is curious to me how this list [of firms] was selected,” said Charles Jung, president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, which issued a statement supporting attorneys and firms the administration has targeted. “It appears to be kind of a brushback: ‘If you don’t get in line with our policies and our cultural priorities, then even you are not safe.’”

“And if you’re not safe, implicitly, your clients are not safe,” he added.

The letters ask all the firms to provide a litany of hiring and employment information, including detailed applicant and employee data, descriptions of scholarship and internship programs, and details about case staffing decisions.

“There is no ‘diversity’ exception to these prohibitions,” the EEOC said in its statement. The agency also set up an email address for whistleblowers to report any “potentially unlawful DEI practices” at law firms.

Trump and his allies have long sought to dismantle DEI policies, which they lambast as “reverse discrimination” against white people. Within hours of taking office on Jan. 20, the president began issuing a slew of executive orders to dismantle federal DEI programs and target similar initiatives within the private sector.

The EEOC’s recent actions mark a stark departure for an agency that was established during the Civil Rights Movement to protect certain groups of people who have historically been most vulnerable to workplace discrimination.

The letters were delivered on the heels of several executive orders Trump signed in recent weeks aimed at hamstringing three major law firms — all with offices in San Francisco — that have represented or employed his perceived enemies, including former U.S. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The orders strip the firms’ employees of security clearances, limit their access to federal buildings and potentially rescind government contracts from their clients.

“Lawyers and law firms have to be able to represent those that are currently unpopular. They serve that vital role in our legal system,” Jung said. “When you have one branch of our government making specific attacks against lawyers and law firms, it creates at least the appearance that that branch is attacking the broader legal system as a whole, and that’s very concerning.”