Washington, D.C., lawyer Temitope Ogunrinu, a U.S. citizen with dual citizenship, originally filed the charge against Law Resources with the Immigrant and employee rights section of the Department of Justice in November 2018, and later amended the matter to add Arnold & Porter.

An investigation revealed that the firm and the staffing company implemented a policy of excluding dual citizens and non-citizens with authorization to work in in the U.S. It also found that Arnold & Porter improperly interpreted the requirements of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and that Law Resources improperly retaliated against Ogunrinu, blacklisting her from future assignments after she objected to the restriction.

“This case involves a single incident where the firm mistakenly provided a third-party vendor inaccurate information about the criteria for selecting contractors for a document review,” the firm said in a statement. “As soon as this inadvertent mistake was brought to our attention, the Firm took steps to prevent it from happening again. Additionally, we cooperated fully with the IER in resolving the matter.”