Trump’s Decision to Target DEI Efforts by Federal Contractors Opens Up a New Realm of Corporate Risk and a Legion of ‘Potential Enforcers’

Franklin Turner, Co-Chair of McCarter’s Government Contracts & Global Trade Practice Group, spoke with Fortune about how Trump’s new DEI orders targeting federal contractors can potentially transform corporate America by increasing legal risk and adding another level of regulation to the government contracting process. Franklin said his clients have been concerned about anyone’s ability to “call up the OFCCP and cry fowl.” The ability for people to inform on companies they believe are violating the new DEI rules will lead to an increase in lawsuits, and even create a “cottage industry” of lawyers taking advantage of the opportunity to sue companies for damages, he said. “In nearly two decades of doing this, I’ve never seen an executive order that I can remember that expressly ties compliance to the False Claims Act.”