An advocacy organization … filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, accusing Sponsors for Educational Opportunity of engaging in anticompetitive practices by allegedly colluding on DEI metrics and falsely advertising its program…

At least 17 law firms have withdrawn from Sponsors for Educational Opportunity … the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission opened an investigation into the SEO Law Fellowship in 2025.

AEO first filed discrimination charges against the nonprofit and 44 participating law firms in May 2025. At the time, SEO did not scrap its “demographic preferences,” instead expanding those preferences to include religion, AEO said. After the US Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that race-based affirmative action programs are unconstitutional, SEO adopted “seemingly neutral language” while continuing to favor applicants based on their legally protected characteristics, AEO said.

“…[SEO’s] website says ‘all are welcome to apply to ​our programs,’ but ⁠Americans for Equal Opportunity said SEO had recently adopted ‘seemingly neutral language while continuing to favor applicants based on legally protected characteristics.’”

“At least 17 law firms have dropped out of the SEO Law Fellowship, a program that places students at elite law firms, cutting enrollment in half as the program faces a federal investigation … [t]he defections followed a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against sponsors for Educational Opportunity and 44 participating firms.”

The EEOC is taking [AEO’s] allegations seriously. It has launched a "pattern or practice" investigation into SEO, a rare and resource-intensive move reserved for allegations of systemic discrimination …

Such probes made up less than 0.45 percent of the EEOC's caseload in 2023. The agency defines systemic cases as "pattern or practice, policy and/or class cases where the discrimination has a broad impact on an industry, profession, company or geographic location."

…[A] new civil rights membership organization, Americans for Equal Opportunity (AEO), announced it has filed a formal Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) and 44 of the nation’s largest law firms. 

These complaints and lawsuits lay the groundwork for full investigations by enforcement agencies such as the EEOC and DOJ.

“A prestigious law firm fellowship for minority students is withering under attack from critics of diversity initiatives … [t]he organisation, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, placed fewer than 100 law school students into top law firms this summer, roughly half the number of previous years, as several firms have backed away amid scrutiny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.”

Several firms agreed to end race-based hiring as part of deals struck with the White House and EEOC in April. But at least eight of those firms have continued receiving interns through an outside staffing agency, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, that places minority students at elite law firms. According to an EEOC complaint filed last week, the initiative is "the largest racially discriminatory hiring pipeline program in the legal field."

It seems that elite law firms were so eager to hire associates from certain racial groups that they didn’t care about either merit or civil rights laws.

Their discriminatory zeal can be attributed in part to ideology. It’s no secret that the lawyers who run these firms are far to the left of most Americans. It can also be attributed in part to the pressure that the DEI industry and the Biden administration put them under. America’s law firms (and other corporations) faced a hard choice: suffer attacks along the lines that they have too many employees of the “wrong” races and ethnicities or quickly hack the hiring process by outsourcing illegal discrimination to a staffing firm. 

"A law firm fellowship program for incoming law students is “the largest racially discriminatory hiring pipeline program in the legal field," according to a charge of discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by a legal advocacy group.

Americans for Equal Opportunity registered as a nonprofit in early February and employed a Manhattan Institute legal fellow to write Monday's charge. Its website asks employees to submit instances of illegal discrimination to a website called HarmedByDei.com. The group characterized the SEO Law fellowship as a “shortcut to full-time employment at Sponsor Firms for candidates from preferred racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

"The charge could be a test case for whether the EEOC will target its enforcement efforts towards diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it deems discriminatory..."

“The complaint provides a case study in how racial preferences can be disguised and outsourced to nonprofits that help firms launder discrimination through a third party, letting them claim to make decisions solely on merit.”

"[AEO]’s filing of a race discrimination charge against SEO and the 44 collaborating law firms by a private membership organization representing individuals harmed by the allegedly unlawful employment practices casts in new light the Trump Administration’s targeting of DEI programs.”