Trump’s civil rights office probes DEI hiring at three Bay Area law firms
Dozens of junior associates from three Bay Area law offices have joined a nationwide petition urging their bosses to fight back against the Trump Administration’s claims that their diversity hiring programs may violate federal civil rights laws.
So far, the partners of Morrison Foerster based in San Francisco, Cooley in Palo Alto and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a British firm with a Redwood City office, have yet to speak up publicly. Their offices were among 20 across the county that received letters last week from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission expressing concern that their hiring practices actively recruiting minorities and women amount to reverse discrimination.
The junior associates didn’t sign their names to the national petition that has been circulating online since last week to avoid reprisals but included the names of their firms and the year they were hired instead. Others have joined in, including lawyers with Palo Alto-based Wilson Sonsini and other Bay Area firms that haven’t received the EEOC notices.
The petition, which has grown to more than 1,600 entries this week, contends the civil rights inquiries are part of a larger offensive by President Donald Trump against law firms that included executive orders targeting offices he believes have been “weaponized” against him in past legal cases.
In one executive order, Trump threatened the security clearances for New York firm Paul, Weiss, which has offices in San Francisco. The firm was widely excoriated when it made a deal with Trump last week to provide $40 million in pro bono work for his administration in return for Trump canceling the restrictions. Another major firm, Skadden Arps — whose former associate Rachel Cohen started the petition after she resigned last week — announced Friday that it had made a deal with Trump as well, agreeing to do $100 million worth of legal work for the administration to avert an anticipated executive order targeting its pro bono work and diversity programs.
Seattle-based Perkins Coie, with offices in Palo Alto, however, is fighting back, suing the administration after Trump called the work it did for former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton “dangerous and dishonest” and in an executive order suspended its government contracts and security clearances.
“The President seeks to bully and intimidate federal judges, attorneys and law firms that disagree with him or take positions he does not like — undermining the American legal system built atop the U.S. Constitution he two months ago swore to uphold,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a statement Wednesday. He joined 20 other state attorneys general in issuing an open letter Wednesday urging the legal community to unite against Trump and “reaffirm their commitment to the zealous representation of their clients.”
It’s unclear why Cooley, Morrison Foerster and Freshfields were singled out for their DEI programs or whether they had any other encounters with Trump that put them in his crosshairs.
But throughout Trump’s campaign, he has disparaged DEI measures as “woke” and has worked to dismantle them in executive orders throughout government agencies, including the military. He and other conservatives argue they have replaced merit in hiring.
Like many major corporations, all three Bay Area law firms feature numerous diversity hiring programs, awards and goals on their websites.
While law firms believe these programs show they are embracing civil rights laws, the EEOC said “there is no ‘diversity’ exception” to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964‘s prohibitions against “discriminating against an individual because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
“The EEOC is prepared to root out discrimination anywhere it may rear its head, including in our nation’s elite law firms,” acting Chair Andrea R. Lucas said. “No one is above the law — and certainly not the private bar.”
The EEOC letters, dated March 17 and signed by Lucas, asks the law firms to provide names, genders, races, addresses, phone numbers, billable hours, affinity groups and compensation of all their lawyers and interns hired since 2019.
“At any point since 2019,” the letters ask, did any employee or recruiter indicate the firm “was not seeking male or White candidates…?”
In her letter to the Cooley law firm, Lucas pointed out that on March 14 its “DEI Action Plan landing page” was no longer available to the public.
“Cooley’s sudden, overnight removal of its ‘board approved DEI plan’ from its public facing landing page gives me pause,” Lucas wrote. That plan, which EEOC staff had access to earlier, had a goal of reaching 32% diversity among lawyers and 37% diversity in managers and directors by January 2026, the letter said.
This week, numerous links to diversity pages are readily accessible on Cooley’s website, where it touts numerous diversity awards, fellowships and affinity groups. CEO Rachel Proffitt is quoted as saying that “when we embrace individuals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, we create a rich tapestry of ideas, experiences, and talents. This diversity sparks innovation, challenges the status quo, and propels us forward.”
Neither Profitt, nor any of the lawyers named in the EEOC letters nor others at the three firms contacted for comment by the Bay Area News Group responded to voice mails or emails this week.
Elliott Peters, a partner in San Francisco-based Keker, Van Nest and Peters, said he’s not surprised the three Bay Area firms aren’t talking.
“The president’s the most powerful person in the world, and he’s ruthless and he said he wouldn’t weaponize the government, but that’s exactly what he’s doing,” said Peters, whose firm issued its own statement against Trump’s attacks. “That makes it even more important that lawyers link arms and stand up for the rule of law.”
Charles Jung, president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, said that this country has a long tradition of lawyers defending clients in politically charged and unpopular cases, from founding father John Adams representing British soldiers after the Boston Massacre to Alexander Hamilton defending a Federalist journalist charged with libeling President Thomas Jefferson.
“Lawyers have to be free to represent any client, even unpopular ones, without that fear, and that’s how we as a profession ensure both access to justice and hold power accountable and even governmental power,” Jung said.
Despite his own firm’s dedication to diversity, Peters said he’s not afraid of becoming the next Trump target by speaking out now.
“I didn’t go to law school to sit and watch while our legal system gets deconstructed and lawyers get intimidated and judges get threatened,” he said, “without standing up and resisting.”