Clifford Chance offices in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused translation-services firm TransPerfect of discriminating against dual citizens and work-authorized non-citizens in its hiring and recruitment practices.

In an administrative complaint, government attorneys alleged that TransPerfect's staffing agency engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination from April to July 2017, while hiring lawyers to work on a client's document-review project in Washington, D.C.

According to the complaint, the client, which was not named in the filing, directed TransPerfect at first to hire only U.S. citizens for the project, and later instructed the firm to exclude dual citizens as well.

“Although it implemented these discriminatory policies at the request of a client, TransPerfect Staffing actively participated in the discriminatory hiring process and remained the employer of the document reviewers assigned to the project,” the Justice Department said in a press release.

The agency said that staffing firms were required to comply with federal law prohibiting discrimination based on immigration status and that it was “committed to challenging such unlawful and discriminatory hiring practices.”

TransPerfect, which was formerly incorporated in Delaware but converted to a Nevada corporation last year, had contracted with global law firm Clifford Chance to hire attorneys for the project, which it said involved issues of national security and required high-level clearance.

Clifford Chance last year agreed to pay $132,000 in civil penalties, plus lost wages to three unidentified individuals, to settle a similar investigation stemming from the same project. According to the settlement agreement, Clifford Chance made a “good faith” effort to adhere to U.S. regulations that restrict disclosure of sensitive material to anyone who is not a “U.S. person,” but ran afoul of provisions that allow U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, asylees and refugees to access certain sensitive information covered by those national security rules.

The firm on Friday declined to comment on last year's settlement and the most recent filing against TransPerfect.

According to the complaint, it was “standard operation procedure” at TransPerfect while hiring for the project to require applicants to prove their immigration status. The Justice Department said that two candidates, both dual citizens, were hired to work on the project but were later removed because of their citizenship status. Both individuals, the government said, were later excluded from a TransPerfect blast email advertising the project and seeking qualified candidates.

Martin Russo, an attorney for TransPerfect, said the company took instructions from a “top-tier law firm” and respected its concerns regarding national security.

“The company engaged in no wrongdoing and expects to prevail at the administrative hearing of this matter,” he said.

Russo also noted that TransPerfect at the time was being operated under the direction of Robert B. Pincus, a former partner with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who had been acting as a court-appointed custodian in a separate case in Delaware over the company's forced sale.

Pincus, who is now retired from the firm, declined to comment when reached by phone Friday afternoon.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys from the Immigrant and Employees Rights Section of the Justice Department and requests the payment of a civil penalty, as well as back pay for any person found to have suffered lost wages as a result of TransPerfect's allegedly discriminatory practice.

The case, filed with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, is captioned United States v. Chancery Staffing Solutions.

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