Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appoints seasoned attorney Sharyn Tejani to key position

- ADVERTISEMENT -

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced the appointment of two individuals, one an Indian-American, to key Senior Executive Service (SES) managerial positions at the agency.

The SES is a federal government personnel program in which civil service employees serve at a level just below the top presidential appointees.

Sharyn Tejani and Raymond Peeler have been selected by Chair Charlotte A. Burrows to serve as Associate Legal Counsels in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at EEOC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Associate Legal Counsels, as deputies to the Legal Counsel, manage areas of practice within OLC and serve as a bridge between career OLC attorneys and agency leadership.

Tejani began her new position March 14, 2022, and will focus on policy related to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and defensive litigation.

Before joining the EEOC, Tejani was the director of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund and the Legal Network for Gender Equity at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) Fund. In that position, Tejani is credited with helping create and supervise the first nationwide program to connect workers facing sex discrimination and harassment with attorneys and to fund attorneys’ fees and media assistance for selected cases of workplace sex harassment.

Previously, she served as a deputy chief in the Employment Litigation Section of  the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and worked at the EEOC as an attorney advisor to Commissioner Stuart J. Ishimaru.

A graduate of Yale University, Tejani earned her law degree from Georgetown University School of Law.

“I am thrilled to be rejoining the EEOC and look forward to working with my dedicated and talented colleagues to further the agency’s critical mission,” Tejani is quoted saying in the EEOC press release.

Tejani started her career as a litigator at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and subsequently moved to the Feminist Majority Foundation to work on reproductive rights issues.

She is married, with 2 children, and lives in Virginia.