Civil Rights Proposal Success Prompts Questions on Equity

Aaron Lewis spoke with Agenda about the evolution of civil rights disclosures and the increase in shareholder proposals urging companies to conduct racial equity or civil rights audits in 2022.

Aaron, who was part of the Covington team that conducted audits at Starbucks and other organizations, expressed there is room for both external and internal experts to work together to evaluate civil rights.

He described how civil rights assessments are an objective assessment of company's efforts to promote civil rights and to identify, analyze and mitigate civil rights risks related to the company’s policies and business practices. Most assessments, he explained, are anchored by different scoping questions that create the framing for the audit. The result is a public report that describes recommendations arising from the assessment.

“These are not investigations. They are not monitorships,” Aaron said. “They are, at least in our conceptualization … most closely aligned with a disclosure exercise and then an effort to formulate recommendations about taking the current state as it exists and enhancing it going forward for the benefit of the company’s internal and external stakeholders.”