US Department of Labor appoints Catherine Eschbach as director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced Catherine Eschbach will lead the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. 

“I’m honored to serve as director of the OFCCP under the Trump Administration and oversee its transition to its new scope of mission,” Eschbach said. “President Trump made clear in his executive order on eliminating DEI that EO 11246 had facilitated federal contractors adopting DEI practices out of step with the requirements of our Nation’s civil rights laws and that, with the recission of EO 11246, the President mandates federal contractors wind those practices down within 90 days. As director, I’m committed to carrying out President Trump’s executive orders, which will restore a merit-based system to provide all workers with equal opportunity.”

Prior to her appointment, Eschbach worked for six years in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP’s appellate group where her practice focused on complex constitutional, statutory, and administrative law issues. In that role, she spearheaded successful path-making litigation to return the federal government’s practices to its constitutional limits, including issues affecting OFCCP. As an active attorney in Houston’s legal community, Eschbach was appointed by the Texas Supreme Court to its advisory Grievance Oversight Committee and served as the president of the Houston Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society.

Before joining the firm, Eschbach served as a judicial law clerk for now-Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge David Hittner of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She holds a J.D. from the Pepperdine School of Law and a B.S. from Vanderbilt University.