Aaron Sibarium of the Washington Free Beacon reports a significant blow to the diversity, equity, and inclusion racket.
At least 17 law firms have dropped out of a prestigious internship program that allegedly excluded white applicants, cutting the program’s enrollment in half as it faces a federal probe.
The defections from Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), a nonprofit that places “underrepresented” students at elite law firms, came after the program and 44 participating firms were hit by a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which opened an investigation last year.
In “position statements” submitted to the agency, 17 of those firms indicated that they no longer participate in the SEO Law Fellowship. The EEOC shared the firms’ statements with Americans for Equal Opportunity, the nonprofit behind the complaint, which provided the Washington Free Beacon with a list of firms that jumped ship, including Kirkland & Ellis, Gibson Dunn, Davis Polk, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
With fewer participating firms, the fellowship has been forced to downsize. It accepted just 58 fellows in 2026, down from 104 fellows the previous year, according to a LinkedIn post from a current fellow and internal data reviewed by the Free Beacon.
The decrease underscores the degree to which federal pressure has weakened diversity initiatives throughout Big Law, forcing firms to abandon or at least conceal their race-based hiring practices.
Several firms disavowed DEI as part of settlement agreements with the Trump administration, while others quietly removed race-conscious language from their websites and dismantled race-based affinity groups.
SEO itself purged any reference to race from its public-facing materials, which no longer use terms like “underrepresented” or even “underserved.” But according to Americans for Equal Opportunity, the fellowship is still using racial preferences.
The group filed a new charge with the EEOC this month alleging that SEO has continued to discriminate based on “race (White), color, national origin (American), religion (Christian), and sex (sexual orientation—heterosexual), in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
