About this event
On January 21, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” directing federal agencies to identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs deemed discriminatory. Large nonprofit organizations and foundations with assets of $500 million or more are among those that could be identified.
Join the Council on Foundations, Independent Sector, National Council of Nonprofits and United Philanthropy Forum for a discussion on how this action affects nonprofits and philanthropy. Legal expert Emily Cuneo DeSmedt of Morgan Lewis will provide valuable insights to help nonprofits and philanthropies understand this order.
Speaker
Emily Cuneo Desmedt, Legal Expert, Morgan Lewis
Emily represents employers in a wide variety of employment-related matters, including the defense of wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination and retaliation claims. Emily is recognized as a strategic, practical and decisive litigator, who consistently achieves summary judgment dismissals and/or favorable settlements for her clients with minimal disruption to their internal business clients. She also handles internal investigations into complaints of alleged harassment, discrimination, workplace misconduct and retaliation.
Emily also provides strategic employment and DEI counseling to in-house counsel, business leaders and boards of directors. Emily is a co-leader of the firm’s Counseling Initiative and regularly advises on complex issues such as leaves of absence; disability, pregnancy, and religious accommodation requests; sexual harassment allegations; and executive-level performance management. Emily is also a leader of the firm’s DEI and Racial Equity Task Force, and she advises many of the nation’s largest private and public companies, foundations, non-profits and investment funds regarding to advance their DEI, racial equity and supplier diversity programs and strategies without running afoul of the law. Emily also defends Section 1981 lawsuits challenging DEI and racial equity programs.
Emily represents clients in several industries, including retail, sports, pharmaceutical, healthcare and philanthropy.
Please contact Nancy Sanabria with any questions.