It was a chance to consort with the enemy—a powwow with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And everyone wanted in.

That’s how Linda Burwell of Detroit’s Nemeth Burwell described her clients’ reactions when she invited them to have breakfast on Oct. 17 with the EEOC. Burwell said her clients were eager to “see what the EEOC is doing and why they are doing it.”