Covington’s Stacey Grigsby on the Changing Legal Landscape for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Initiatives

Stacey Grigsby was featured in AmLaw Litigation Daily in a Q&A about how her experience as White House Deputy Counsel in the Biden administration has shaped her client work since rejoining Covington as a senior member of its Institutional Culture and Social Responsibility Practice and co-chair of the Firm’s Government Litigation Practice.

Commenting on how she has drawn upon her White House experience, Stacey said, “There are really two parts, I think. There’s the substantive match: The civil rights issues map onto the institutional culture and social responsibility practice that we already have. But then I think the second part is at a higher level. […] At the White House, we were talking mostly about legislation. But I think all of these types of aspects of problem-solving in a multi-dimensional way are similar to what you do as a lawyer when you’re dealing with a crisis for a client.”

According to Stacey, there are three types of investigations where Covington lawyers in the Institutional Culture and Social Responsibility Practice advise clients. “The first type is more like a misconduct investigation where there is a specific allegation that a person, a company or a department has done something. We would come in backward-looking to figure out whether that allegation is true. So that’s one bucket. I think the second bucket is cultural reviews, which really make sure that a company is living up to certain policies or practices or controls that already exist. And then the third bucket is the civil rights audits and racial equity assessments. There we’re looking at whether the company’s policies, practices and products impact social inequalities. And that’s really kind of forward-looking.”