Follow up to: Does the Government Decide What Your Law Firm Will Do? – via Bloomberg – “Large law firms plan to refuse to give the Trump administration information on their clients’ diversity initiatives as part of federal discrimination investigations. The 20 firms facing questions from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will reject the agency’s inquiries related to clients over confidentiality concerns, according to two people familiar with the matter. The EEOC wants the firms to name clients that require them to hit diversity targets for staffing on legal matters and to detail any incentives earned by meeting certain metrics. The agency cited Microsoft Corp.’s diversity program for the tech company’s law firms as an example. Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are among firms hit March 17 with EEOC letters. Their responses are expected to start a legal tug of war with the agency, which President Donald Trump directed to police major firms for bias in diversity programs. “It’s core to our profession to not disclose things about your clients or communications with your clients,” said Joshua Roffman, a Washington lawyer who advises companies on diversity initiatives. “You don’t even want to open the door a little bit to that.” William Burck, a litigator at Quinn Emanuel who has emerged as a go-between for firms facing retribution from Trump, and Gibson Dunn lawyer Jason Schwartz are separately advising several of those hit with EEOC inquiries. Allan Bloom, the co-chair of Proskauer’s labor and employment group, and Washington attorney David Fortney are also advising some of the firms. The firms plan to respond by the April 15 deadline in the letters, in which the EEOC also requested details about hiring and promotions, job applicants, and individual attorneys, the people said. They’ve decided not to challenge Andrea Lucas, the EEOC’s Trump-appointed acting leader, despite questions about her authority to investigate firms via public letters. Those on the EEOC list determined that ignoring the letters or refusing to turn over any information could get them more unwanted attention from the administration, according to the people. The EEOC investigations are part of the administration’s attack on the legal industry. The White House has issued executive orders targeting firms and extracted deals from others for $340 million in services for Trump-aligned causes. Those directives and agreements have ensnared nine law firms so far. The EEOC typically polices workplace discrimination by investigating charges filed by workers against their employers. The agency’s commissioners can self-initiate charges to launch investigations, but those charges usually are not made public. Lucas’ top priorities include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” she said in a Jan. 20 statement when she was tapped for the acting role. She told the firms in the letters that she is “concerned” that their DEI programs and policies “may entail unlawful disparate treatment in terms, conditions, and privileges of employment” based on race and sex in violation of federal law. An EEOC spokesperson declined to comment…”