The White House issued a press release last Thursday announcing President Obama’s intention to appoint David Lopez to serve as General Counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lopez has 13 years of experience at the EEOC and, prior to his entry into government work, he worked as an associate at Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP. He currently serves as a supervisory trial attorney in the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office. Lopez also has experience working at the Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. If he accepts the nomination, Lopez will inherit the position from Deputy General Counsel James Lee, who took over the operations of the Office of General Counsel after former EEOC General Counsel Ronald Cooper stepped down in early February.

The EEOC is charged with enforcing federal antidiscrimination law around the country, and the position of General Counsel will entrust Mr. Lopez with the responsibility of representing employees around the country in potentially groundbreaking litigation. One notable case in recent memory is EEOC v. Walgreen Co., a nationwide antidiscrimination class action suit that ended in March of 2008 with a payment of over $24 million to thousands of African American workers. While working in Phoenix, Mr. Lopez tried a case against GoDaddy.com that lead to a verdict of $242,000 for discrimination on the basis of religion against a Muslim employee.

We applaud and endorse Mr. Lopez’s appointment and encourage him to continue the fight for employees who are the victims of discrimination in the workplace. This appointment is clearly important to the work force in Connecticut, as well as throughout the entire country. We wish Mr. Lopez luck in his endeavors on behalf of workers everywhere, and hope that he always remembers just how important his position can be to victims of workplace discrimination throughout the United States.