Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer and Washington, D.C., legal staffing company Law Resources will pay a $56,500 civil penalty to resolve claims that they engaged in hiring discrimination based on citizenship status, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Arnold & Porter to Pay Civil Penalty for Discrimination in Doc Review Project

The firm mistakenly instructed that only U.S. citizens could be hired for the project due to data access restrictions contained in the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.

July 23, 2020 at 03:47 PM

3 minute read

Dan Packel

The settlement will put to rest claims that Law Resources followed Arnold & Porter's directions to screen out from a document review project U.S. citizens with dual citizenship and non-U.S. citizens with work authorization. The purported conduct violates the Immigration and Nationality Act.

"The United States of America is the land of opportunity, and the United States government remains committed fully to the fundamental principle that in this country, all people authorized by law to work should be able to pursue happiness by earning a living without suffering the indignity of discrimination because of where they came from," assistant attorney general Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "Our law protects this ideal in many ways, including by prohibiting unlawful citizenship status restrictions in hiring."