Trump DOL Names Contractor Watchdog Head as DEI Battles Grow (1)

The US Labor Department has appointed a Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP attorney to lead its branch that polices federal contractors for anti-discrimination and affirmative action violations, a move that comes two months after President Donald Trump gutted much of the office’s core enforcement power.

Catherine Eschbach will serve as the director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the DOL announced Monday. Eschbach previously worked for six years in Morgan Lewis’s appellate group, where she focused on complex constitutional, statutory, and administrative law issues, the agency said.

Her appointment comes at a critical time for federal contractors as they navigate a complex legal landscape following Trump’s recent executive order curtailing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the federal workforce and at private companies with government contracts.

Large employers like Deloitte LLP, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Microsoft Corp. were among the tens of thousands of companies that had government contracts worth a total of $769.5 billion in fiscal 2024, according to Bloomberg Government data.

Trump’s sweeping Jan. 21 action also revoked a decades-old executive order that allowed the OFCCP to combat race and sex discrimination at federal contractor worksites and enforce affirmative action obligations.

With the revocation of EO 11246, the contractor watchdog now only enforces affirmative action and anti-bias laws for veterans and disabled workers.

In alignment with Trump’s changes to the OFCCP, as well as broader efforts to downsize the federal workforce, the DOL in February said it was preparing to cut the watchdog’s workforce by 90%.

The office was also directed to halt audits and investigations in line with the Trump executive action. That gives a reprieve, for now, to the roughly 2,000 companies the Biden administration had slated for OFCCP evaluations this fiscal year, including Meta Platforms Inc., Google LLC, and Pfizer Inc.

“I’m honored to serve as director of the OFCCP under the Trump Administration and oversee its transition to its new scope of mission,” Eschbach said in the DOL’s announcement of her new role. “As director, I’m committed to carrying out President Trump’s executive orders, which will restore a merit-based system to provide all workers with equal opportunity.”

Law Firm Work

At Morgan Lewis, Eschbach represented janitorial and cleaning services federal contractor ABM Industry Groups LLC in a suit against the OFCCP that was voluntarily dismissed in December.

AMB sought to move a DOL racial bias case to federal court, claiming its agency’s in-house judge system violates its Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. It pointed to the US Supreme Court’s 2024 SEC v. Jarkesy decision, claiming the DOL is engaging in an enforcement action that’s seeking money damages and is essentially a “common law” breach of contract claim that warrants a trial.

The OFCCP initiated proceedings against ABM in 2021, alleging that three of its locations discriminated against Black and White job applicants for janitorial positions in favor of Hispanic workers. The underlying administrative proceeding has been settled, and ABM denied the allegations.

She’s also represented Elon Musk’s space and satellite company SpaceX, in one of its disputes involving the National Labor Relations Board.

“Catherine was an outstanding colleague, and we congratulate her on this appointment,” Morgan Lewis Chair Jami McKeon said in a statement.

Morgan Lewis is one of 20 Big Law firms grappling with the administration’s unprecedented demand for extensive hiring and diversity data as part of its broader crackdown on DEI.

Acting Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas told the firms in March 17 letters that their DEI practices may be discriminatory under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Days before Lucas’s letter, the DOL announced that former Morgan Lewis partner Jonathan Snare had been appointed to serve as its deputy solicitor of labor. Snare worked in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office for 15 years.