5 | EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2025 EDITION ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP C . EEOC Profiles Jocelyn Samuels (Vice Chair, Democrat) Jocelyn Samuels joined the EEOC as a Commissioner on October 14, 2020, and on July 14, 2021, was confirmed for a second term expiring July 1, 2026. She has been designated by President Biden as the Commission’s Vice Chair. Immediately prior to joining the Commission, she led the Williams Institute, focusing on LGBTQI+ issues. During the Obama administration, she served in leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the U.S. Department of Justice. Kalpana Kotagal (Commissioner, Democrat) Kalpana Kotagal joined the EEOC on August 9, 2023, and her term expires July 1, 2027. Before joining the Commission, she was in private practice, focusing on litigating worker-side civil rights issues. She is a co-author of the “Inclusion Rider” – a voluntary agreement between actors, filmmakers and studios aimed at advancing equal opportunity in the film industry both behind the camera and in front of it. Andrea R . Lucas (Acting Chair, Republican) Andrea R. Lucas joined the EEOC in 2020 and became Acting Chair on January 20, 2025. Her term expires July 1, 2025. Prior to her appointment to the EEOC, she practiced management-side employment law at a large Washington, D.C. law firm. Acting Chair Lucas continues to garner media coverage for her cautionary advice to employers regarding their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. She is also known for emphasizing issues relating to religious discrimination, accommodation, and inclusion; accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions; and disability accommodation. Commissioner Lucas’ voting patterns demonstrate that she was a potential “swing” vote when the Commission was under Democratic control. ©2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP EEOC-INITIATED LITIGATION: 2025 EDITION | 6 Keith E . Sonderling (Former Commissioner, Republican, Term Concluded July 1, 2024) Keith E. Sonderling joined the EEOC in 2020, for a term that expired on July 1, 2024. Commissioner Sonderling departed the EEOC on September 1. Until January of 2021, he served as the Commission’s Vice-Chair. Before joining the EEOC, he served as the Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the U.S. Department of Labor. Before joining the Department of Labor in 2017, he was a management-side labor and employment lawyer in Florida. Commissioner Sonderling speaks and writes frequently on the benefits and potential harms of using artificial intelligence-based technology in the workplace. Karla Gilbride (General Counsel, Democrat) Karla Gilbride was nominated by President Biden as General Counsel of the EEOC, and was confirmed by the Senate on October 17, 2023 to a four-year term. Prior to Gilbride’s confirmation, the EEOC had been without a Senate-confirmed General Counsel since President Biden’s firing in March 2021 of General Counsel Sharon Gustafson, who had been nominated by President Trump. Gilbride previously litigated cases on behalf of workers and consumers. In May of 2022, she argued before the Supreme Court and obtained a 9-0 victory in a case involving the impact of delay on the enforcement of arbitration clauses, Morgan v. Sundance, Inc., 596 US 411, 142 S.Ct. 1708 (2022). Charlotte A . Burrows (Commissioner, Democrat) Charlotte Burrows has been a Commissioner at the EEOC since 2014, and is currently serving her third term. First nominated to the Commission by President Obama in 2014, she is now serving her third term, which expires July 1, 2028. She was designated by President Biden as the Chair of the Commission. Prior to her appointment to the EEOC, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and on the staff of Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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