The FTC flags practices where firms coordinate on diversity-based hiring criteria or outcomes in ways that constrain competition for lawyers — e.g., agreeing to quotas or agreement to compose candidate panels by race, sex, or other personal characteristics rather than merit; coordinating final hiring or promotion decisions based on those characteristics; meeting with competitors to standardize implementation of DEI criteria; and sharing sensitive information about pay, benefits, or candidate pools. Those examples appear in the Chairman’s statement and in the FTC’s warning‑letter template that cites the Mansfield Certification process and potential collusion risks.
An FTC warning letter is a non‑binding notice that the agency believes conduct may violate competition or consumer laws and urges recipients to stop; it is not a formal enforcement action and does not itself impose fines or penalties, though failure to comply can lead to further steps (including administrative actions or federal lawsuits).
The 42 firms named in the FTC press release are: Alston & Bird; Arnold & Porter; BakerHostetler; Cooley; Covington & Burling; Davis Polk; Debevoise & Plimpton; Dentons; DLA Piper; Faegre Drinker; Fox Rothschild; Gibson Dunn; Goodwin Procter; Gordon Rees; Greenberg Traurig; Hogan Lovells; Holland & Knight; Husch Blackwell; Jackson Lewis; K&L Gates; Latham & Watkins; Lewis Brisbois; Littler; Mayer Brown; McDermott Will & Emery; McGuireWoods; Morgan Lewis; Nelson Mullins; Ogletree Deakins; Paul Weiss; Perkins Coie; Polsinelli; Reed Smith; Sheppard Mullin; Sidley Austin; Skadden; Troutman Pepper; White & Case; WilmerHale; Wilson Elser; Wilson Sonsini; Winston & Strawn.
If investigation finds anticompetitive hiring practices, the FTC can pursue enforcement including civil litigation seeking injunctions, orders to stop the conduct, disgorgement or restitution where available, and in some circumstances civil penalties (or administrative enforcement remedies); it can also refer matters for criminal prosecution where applicable and use Rulemaking or policy actions to address systemic issues.
The linked “Warning Letter Template for Diversity Lab” (the FTC’s template) explains the agency’s concerns: it describes Mansfield Certification (a Diversity Lab program) and says firms agree to follow DEI criteria, may meet with competitors to implement common practices, and warns that coordination on candidate characteristics, quotas, hiring/promotion decisions, or sharing pay/benefits information can violate antitrust laws. The template was published by the FTC (authored by Commission staff/Chairman’s office) and is available on the FTC Legal Library as the agency’s model letter to recipients.
In this context the FTC treats “anticompetitive employment practices” as agreements or coordinated conduct among employers that distort competition for labor — e.g., collusion to set hiring or promotion criteria based on personal characteristics, quotas, joint decisions about candidate pools, or exchanging competitively sensitive information (pay, benefits, or candidate selection) that suppresses competition for talent.
Diversity Lab is a for‑profit DEI consultancy that runs the Mansfield Certification program — a year‑long certification process that asks participating law firms and legal departments to adopt certain DEI practices and to track and share data. The FTC’s template links Mansfield to common implementation meetings and standardized criteria and says the program’s structure can create risks that firms coordinate on hiring metrics or share sensitive labor‑market information; Diversity Lab runs the Mansfield program (information on the program is on Diversity Lab’s website).