EEOC ends investigation into possible Big Law discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has closed its investigation into potential discriminatory hiring practices at major U.S. law firms.

The EEOC announced the closure Monday of the investigation that began in March of last year, when the agency sent letters to 20 large law firms requesting hiring and contact information for all law students and attorneys who had applied for positions dating back to 2019. Firms that received the requests included Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, Hogan Lovells, Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin.

Some turned over the requested information, while others declined to do so. A small group of firms including Kirkland, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and A&O Shearman ultimately reached a settlement with the Trump administration and the EEOC. The terms of those settlements were not made public.

The EEOC’s actions prompted legal pushback. Three law students who had applied to or worked at one or more of the targeted firms filed a lawsuit against the agency and its chair, Andrea Lucas, challenging the legality of the information requests.

That case now appears to be over. On Monday, the EEOC filed a stipulation of dismissal, signaling that the lawsuit would be voluntarily dismissed.

In its filing, the agency emphasized that compliance with its March 17, 2025, letters was never compulsory. The EEOC told the court it had previously made clear that "responding to the requests for information in its March 17, 2025 letters to twenty law firms ... was voluntary, that compliance was not mandatory, and that most law firms did not provide any of the requested information.”

With the dismissal filed and the investigation formally closed, the agency’s efforts to scrutinize Big Law hiring practices appear to have come to an end – at least for now.