When the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee’s comparatively quiet 2025 fiscal 12 months wrapped a bit over a 12 months in the past, watchers anticipated FY 2026 might carry an explosion of litigation.
The company appeared to tee up main exercise, saying priorities in step with President Donald Trump’s administration, like nationwide origin discrimination towards American staff and variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives with allegedly discriminatory parts. A quorum-completing Republican commissioner, Brittany Panuccio, was within the pipeline to be confirmed, which occurred days after the brand new fiscal 12 months began. And in November, Trump designated outspoken then-Performing Chair Andrea Lucas as chair of the company.
Regardless of solicitations and warnings on social media, nonetheless, EEOC filed solely 97 advantage lawsuits in FY 2026, in accordance with an evaluation from legislation agency Seyfarth Shaw — only a small bump up from 93 the earlier 12 months.
What the EEOC lacked in chew, it made up for in bark, nonetheless, in accordance with Andrew Scroggins, a companion at Seyfarth, and James Nasiri, an affiliate on the similar agency. The 2 spoke to HR Dive about what employers can glean from the company’s actions over the previous 12 months.
Head rely down and a tighter grip in D.C.
One cause EEOC could have filed fewer advantage lawsuits is {that a} January rule change has allowed the Washington, D.C.-based fee to “start or intervene” in virtually all litigation. Prior to now, authority was largely delegated to the district workplaces, besides in novel, controversial or different particular circumstances.
Whereas this variation “means there’s extra message management and staying targeted on agenda gadgets, it additionally creates a bottleneck,” Scroggins stated.
An rising sample in when lawsuits are filed may additionally replicate a change in course of, Scroggins and Nasiri stated. Seyfarth observed a spike in lawsuits filed on a quarterly foundation, together with a small rise in December and bigger spikes in March and June (18 and 19 filings, respectively). In earlier years, September would offer an onslaught of filings (71 in FY2023, for instance) as attorneys rushed to get their circumstances in earlier than the fiscal 12 months ended, however this 12 months company attorneys filed a relatively low 29 lawsuits that month.
“The EEOC, I feel, is being extra focused of their filings, and which may be a cause why we’re seeing barely quieter finish[s] of the fiscal 12 months,” Nasiri stated.
Sure “traditionally aggressive” districts governing among the largest cities within the nation — together with New York Metropolis and Los Angeles — had been additionally “unusually quiet” in FY2026, Seyfarth famous in its evaluation. Two of the company’s 15 district workplaces, Chicago and Philadelphia, accounted for almost 1 / 4 of all filings.
A handful of things could also be contributing to those regional submitting patterns, Scroggins and Nasiri stated, together with a drop in head rely that’s particularly pronounced within the East, West and Southwest; a concentrate on tying up circumstances from prior years; and a possible lack of expenses that will enable the company to pursue its present agenda.
“Once we’re litigating circumstances on the East Coast, I’m seeing the identical attorneys time and again in all of those circumstances, they usually’re stretched very, very skinny,” Scroggins stated.
Trump administration priorities take the wheel
Whereas People with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act claims dominated — normal for the EEOC — the sorts of plaintiffs and expenses the company took on had been notable. Of the 52 Title VII claims Seyfarth counted, a “whopping” 16 handled spiritual discrimination, an space that often receives far much less consideration. In 2025, EEOC trumpeted a renewed concentrate on spiritual bias, with Lucas saying such protections “too typically took a backseat to woke insurance policies.”
Among the many 15 race and nationwide origin discrimination claims, a number of alleged majority-group discrimination towards White or American staff. Whereas uncommon for the company in earlier administrations, Lucas has closely forecasted this focus, soliciting claims from each teams. A number of lawsuits additionally handled allegedly illegal DEI applications, which the company has loudly decried since Trump’s second inauguration.
Whereas the company departed from the prior administration in these areas, many different filings weren’t uncommon. EEOC continued its sturdy concentrate on being pregnant discrimination, for instance — a precedence that emerged throughout the Biden administration, shortly after the passage of the Pregnant Staff Equity Act. Of the 97 advantage lawsuits, 29 had been pregnancy- or sex-based.
Equally, the company filed 38 ADA lawsuits, spotlighting parts EEOC has targeted on prior to now, like visible and listening to impairments. Incapacity discrimination is “going to stay on the prime of the EEOC’s precedence record, whatever the present administration or different priorities that they might have,” Nasiri stated. Scroggins did, nonetheless, discover a diminishing concentrate on “invisible disabilities” which have gained traction prior to now, like autism, ADHD and melancholy, he stated.
Amongst these developments, Seyfarth observed that age bias claims dropped to merely three filings in FY 2026, and two much less regularly enforced legal guidelines — the Equal Pay Act and the Genetic Data Nondiscrimination Act — made a single look every in filings.
What’s in retailer for FY 2027?
As FY 2027 kicks off, Scroggins stated he expects to see EEOC hold its consideration on the Trump administration priorities which have risen to the fore: DEI-based discrimination and nationwide origin bias towards American staff, particularly.
As well as, whereas the company has not pursued a notable variety of lawsuits in FY2026, a sure technique of messaging and signaling to employers has change into widespread and will proceed.
“Chair Lucas has positively been leveraging their public wing, their press releases, public statements … using social media, placing movies on LinkedIn,” Nasiri stated. “She’s clearly attempting to place the message on the market, specific their priorities, and that’s a manner for them to get circumstances that align with these litigation priorities, too.”
In FY 2025 and 2026, the company has additionally taken to saying pre-litigation conciliation agreements, that are “confidential by statute,” Scroggins famous. By implication, EEOC could also be negotiating sure parts of the settlement to acquire the employer’s consent to announce the settlement publicly.
EEOC can use such press releases to sign to employers that EEOC is prioritizing sure expenses, “but it surely may also be a technique to broadcast to staff that that is one thing that they’ll see from their very own employer,” he stated.
Asserting subpoena enforcement actions has additionally change into part of the company’s technique prior to now 12 months. Prior to now, whereas EEOC would typically put out a press launch if it received a subpoena motion enforced, “I had to return greater than 10 years to seek out one other press launch the place they introduced submitting enforcement motion,” Scroggins stated.
Between social media messaging and bulletins of those pre-litigation actions, EEOC could also be relying extra on the bully pulpit than its dwindling assets to acquire compliance — a pattern which will proceed into FY 2027.
“They’re actually going on the market and attempting to ensure that folks know that sure employers are being investigated,” Scroggins stated.
