David Lopez General Counsel

David Lopez General Counsel

David Lopez was sworn in on April 8, 2010 as General Counsel of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He was nominated by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the Senate on December 22, 2010. Mr. Lopez is the first field trial attorney to be appointed as General Counsel. He has served in the Commission on various capacities for the past 17 years, including as Supervisory Trial Attorney and Special Assistant to then-Chairman Gilbert F. Casellas.

As General Counsel, Mr. Lopez oversees the Commission’s federal court litigation of the 15 EEOC district offices. During his tenure, Mr. Lopez has devoted significant time to develop a formidable systemic program nationwide as well as build a strong trial program. Mr. Lopez has extensive experience in this area, having developed large, high-impact cases and successfully trying several cases on behalf of the EEOC. He has won significant jury verdicts against Alamo Rent-a-Car (the first post-9/11 backlash religious accommodation case brought by the EEOC), Go Daddy (a national origin (Moroccan), religion (Muslim), and retaliation case), and AutoZone (CV 06-926-PHX-SMM, an egregious sexual harassment case), to name a few.

In addition, Mr. Lopez is the Co-Chair of committee charged with developing the Commission’s Strategic Enforcement Plan. He is also the Chair of the Commission’s Immigrant Worker Team, a team tasked with identifying ways to strengthen EEOC’s enforcement and outreach on the cross-cutting issues affecting workers of foreign national origin or perceived to be of foreign national origin.

Under his leadership, the Commission has been at the forefront of combating discrimination affecting immigrants and underserved communities. During this past year, the EEOC filed and settled several suits nationwide on behalf of individuals of a foreign national origin or perceived to be of foreign nationals, such as EEOC v. Signal International (S.D. Miss.) (national origin harassment of East Indian workers on H-2B visas), EEOC v. Global Horizons (D. Haw. and E.D. Wash.)(national origin harassment and retaliation against Thai workers on H-2A visas), EEOC v. Evans Fruit (E.D. Wash.)(class sexual harassment and retaliation of farmworkers), EEOC v. Giumarra Vineyards (C.D. Cal.)(sexual harassment of indigenous Mexican farmworkers), EEOC v. Di Mare Ruskin (M.D. Fla.)(sexual harassment of farmworkers), EEOC v. DHL (N.D. Tx.)(class national origin (Latino) harassment), and EEOC v. Koch Foods (S.D. Miss.)(class sexual and national origin (Latino) harassment).

Immediately prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Lopez was a Senior Trial Attorney with the Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Division, of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. between 1991 and 1994. In this capacity, he litigated employment discrimination cases against state and local governments in numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States on behalf of the Department of Justice. Between 1988 and 1991, Mr. Lopez was an Associate with Spiegel and McDiarmid in Washington, D.C., where he practiced anti-trust and administrative litigation.

Mr. Lopez graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988 and graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University in 1985, with a B.S. in Political Science. In 2011, Hispanic Business named Mr. Lopez to its list of 100 influentials in the Hispanic community.

Mr. Lopez has been married 22 years to Maria Leyva. They have three children, Javier David (16), Julian Diego (14), and Luis Andres (11).