Reed Smith Withholds Documents From EEOC While in Talks (1)

Reed Smith is in talks over a federal diversity probe and therefore doesn’t need to supply records to a US regulator, the law firm’s attorney said.

“Reed Smith recently conferred with the EEOC and is currently engaged in discussions,” firm representatives told state attorneys general in an April 15 letter. The EEOC told Reed Smith it can withhold written responses “at the present time,” the firm’s lawyers said.

Bloomberg Law obtained the letter Thursday through a public records request. Reed Smith is one of 20 law firms the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating for alleged discrimination in diversity programs.

The letter shows the differing paths law firms are taking in response to a crackdown by President Donald Trump. Other firms responded to the EEOC by requesting additional time to comply, by reaching an agreement with Trump to end the inquiry, or by withholding information until a legal fight with the president ends.

Reed Smith and the law firm representing it in the EEOC probe, Fortney Scott, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The EEOC in March 17 letters to the law firms requested hiring and contact data for all law students and attorneys that applied for jobs since 2019. It also asked for names, genders, races and GPA information of applicants and gave the firms until April 15 to respond.

The letters followed a March 6 executive order in which Trump ordered the EEOC to look at “large, influential, or industry leading” law firms and their “compliance with race-based and sex-based non-discrimination laws.”

A coalition of Republican state attorneys general on April 3 urged the 20 firms to comply with the EEOC request and to send them the same information. Bloomberg Law obtained the Reed Smith letter from the office of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

The two Fortney Scott lawyers who signed the letter to state attorneys general on behalf of Reed Smith are David Fortney, the firm’s co-founder and former chief legal officer at the US Department of Labor under President George HW Bush, and Leslie Silverman, who advises clients on complying with workplace laws.

Hogan Lovells has turned to boutique law firm Continental, which has connections to Trump, to represent the firm in the EEOC matter. Perkins Coie’s outside counsel Dane Butswinkas of Williams & Connolly has said the firm won’t divulge any of the requested information to the EEOC until the firm finishes a lawsuit against the Trump administration contesting an executive order targeting the firm.

Quinn Emanuel co-managing partner Bill Burck responded to the EEOC probes on behalf of six firms that struck deals with the White House—Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, A&O Shearman, Skadden, and Milbank. Burck’s letter confirmed that the EEOC withdrew its requests for diversity information from the six firms after they made an agreement with Trump for free legal services as a way to avoid punitive executive orders.

Reed Smith Global Managing Partner Casey Ryan told colleagues in an April 15 email viewed by Bloomberg Law that the firm will “retire our DEI program” and instead “will provide offerings going forward under the banner ‘Culture & Engagement.’” She said in the email that the firm “will be guided by the law and our commitment to be fully compliant with the law.”