Employment & Labor Insider

Janet Dhillon, general counsel and corporate secretary for Burlington Stores, Inc., has been nominated by President Trump to fill a vacant seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and to become its Chair. If confirmed, Ms. Dhillon will serve a five-year term that will expire July 1, 2022.

I was expecting him to nominate Victoria Lipnic, the current acting chair. Ms. Lipnic's term will expire in 2020.

I don't know a lot about Ms. Dhillon, but this article in yesterday's National Law Journal provides some helpful background. Her entire career has been in the private sector, including time at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, LLP, and as general counsel for J.C. Penney Co., Inc. She currently lives in Pennsylvania.

According to the National Law Journal, Ms. Dhillon is a Republican (not a surprise!) and has made contributions to the political campaigns of John McCain, Rick Perry, and Ted Cruz.

Jenny Yang, who was the EEOC Chair under President Obama, has a term that will expire in July, but Bloomberg BNA reports that she has elected to stay on for an additional sixty days (an option she has), which means her seat may not become vacant until September. If President Trump nominates a successor during that time, Ms. Yang can stay on until the successor is confirmed, even if that occurs after the sixty-day extension has expired.

There is one additional vacant seat on the five-seat Commission. When President Trump fills that spot and Ms. Dhillon is confirmed, the EEOC will have a Republican majority.

The EEOC General Counsel position, most recently filled by David Lopez under President Obama, is also vacant.