ELI in the News

With decades of experience in delivering innovative learning solutions, leadership at ELI is often sought to provide expert commentary for the news media. Our experts provide insightful views, thought leadership, and opinions on a variety of topics related to building a legal and ethical environment and aligning workplace culture with organizational values. Here you’ll find links to recent articles written by or citing ELI experts.

StrategicCHRO360
As a former litigator against EEOC and other employment law violations, Stephen Paskoff has a distinctive perspective on how to appropriately coach employers on DEI initiatives, compliance and “workplace civility.” Paskoff, CEO of Atlanta-based workplace training company ELI (Employment Learning Innovations), spoke with StrategicCHRO360 about his own path to DEI work, how to navigate divergent opinions on the subject and where workplace culture meets compliance.
Xpert HR
The Supreme Court today held that consideration of race in university admissions is unconstitutional, in a highly anticipated ruling with implications for private-sector employers. Although Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College deals with education, employers and HR professionals should reassess their policies in light of the ruling to make sure they’re handling affirmative action issues such as diversity efforts properly, notes Stephen Paskoff, CEO of Employment Learning Innovations and a former EEOC trial attorney.
New York Times
Conservatives hailed the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, which could drastically alter college admissions policies across the country, while Democrats rued the change.
Human Resource Executive
In a landmark decision Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions—a move that could have significant reverberations across the corporate world. The 6-3 decision, which stemmed from challenges to affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, overturned decades of case law that permitted educational institutions to consider self-identified race in admissions decisions, as long as it wasn’t the only factor.
Forbes
In a decision that stunned exactly no one—but that could ultimately impact not only on the diversity of higher education, but at some point, the workplace—the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday in a historic decision that colleges and universities could no longer use race as a factor in their admissions decisions, prompting Democrats to slam the Court and declare the decision “undermines decades of progress” while former President Trump cheered the ruling.
Legal Dive
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last Thursday holding that admission programs at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were unconstitutional could affect employers’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to stakeholders.
Fast Company
Since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on affirmative action last week, many observers have sounded the alarm on how it might shake up the corporate world and derail hard-won initiatives that address diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. The decision effectively gutted race-based admissions in higher education—a major departure from decades of precedent that some legal experts say could set the stage for attacks on corporate DEI programs. “The sense is that rationale is going to move back into the workplace world of affirmative action,” says Stephen Paskoff, a former EEOC attorney and employment lawyer who now runs the training company ELI.
TechTarget
Addressing racial bias in AI calls for diverse development teams to identify problems others might miss. But a recent Supreme Court ruling could affect how the tech industry builds its workforces. This challenge could prompt the tech sector and others to shift recruiting and hiring strategies by enhancing anti-bias training for recruiters, widening recruitment efforts and revising interview tactics.
Fortune
On Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, ruling it unconstitutional for schools to consider race during the admissions process. In the short term, the move will likely impact companies’ entry-level talent pool, potentially narrowing the breadth of diversity available at the earliest stage of the employee pipeline.
Fox News Rundown
After the recent Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in college admissions, many are now turning their attention to the workplace, where employment diversity programs (like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) could be the next to face scrutiny from the courts. DEI has been polarizing in the world of politics, where Democratic voters and politicians advocate on behalf of these hiring initiatives, while Republicans have criticized these policies as unfair and discriminatory. On the podcast, employment law expert and CEO of ELI Inc., Stephen Paskoff, joins to break down exactly what DEI means for a company’s hiring practices, how employers’ diversity initiatives will be impacted by the latest SCOTUS decision, whether existing programs will soon face legal challenges, and how the affirmative action ruling may change the way companies pursue diversity.
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