Valerie Hoffman Quoted in Daily Labor Report

The April 28, 2006 issue of the Daily Labor Report covered the April 26 annual conference of the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for Affirmative Action reporting that a panel of attorneys told attending affirmative action professionals that "companies should regularly monitor and manage their equal employment opportunity and other anti-discrimination policies in order to avoid government enforcement actions and civil lawsuits. In addition, re-evaluating the effectiveness of EEO efforts will help employers recruit and retain workers from an increasingly competitive, global, and diverse pool of potential workers. Other panelists said senior executives must be aware of what is happening at the lower levels of management, where affirmative action and other equal employment policies actually are implemented. Another potential liability lies in wait for companies that have conducted internal compliance surveys or other studies and have not come forward with the results, Valerie J. Hoffman, an attorney in the Chicago offices of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm, told conference participants."