…[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.”