Companies must assess their diversity, equity and inclusion programs carefully in light of a changing legal landscape that has increased the risks of being sued over diversity initiatives, McGuireWoods Tysons office managing partner Jack L. White told Washington Lawyer in the magazine’s March/April 2024 edition.
Washington Lawyer noted that McGuireWoods created a multidisciplinary DEI practice team to help companies reduce their legal risk and defend diversity efforts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 landmark ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina, et al.
“What we see, to the degree that past is prologue, is that [challenges] begin in higher education, but they do not end there,” White told Washington Lawyer. “There is no absolution from constitutional norms if race-based determinations are declared to be unconstitutional, or at the very least frowned upon. And companies are intelligent to think through [the question]: How do we operate in that environment? We are looking at the landscape of corporate America and the attributes [relating] to diversity and inclusion and asking, how do we navigate in that landscape?”