Southworth PC - Attorneys For Federal Employees

Southworth PC - Attorneys For Federal Employees Nationwide federal employment law firm proudly protecting current and former federal employees. We maintain offices in Atlanta, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

Southworth PC is a national federal employment law firm representing current and former federal employees in EEO/EEOC matters; Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) appeals; Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and whistleblower matters; discipline and removals; reasonable-accommodation disputes; reductions in force (RIFs); and related federal employment matters. Our fully remote team includes 35 legal

professionals, including 14 attorneys, many of whom are former federal employees. Founded and led by Shaun Southworth, with Lydia Taylor leading day-to-day operations, we combine legal rigor, compassion, technology, and plain-English guidance. Our mission is to help 500 federal employees resolve employment disputes over five years. Your service is worth protecting. Let’s protect it together at Southworth PC. This Page provides general information and may constitute attorney advertising. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. Do not send confidential information through Facebook or rely on this Page for legal deadlines. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Shaun Southworth is responsible for this communication.

08/28/2026

The filing is the thing that preserves your rights — the evidence and the lawyer can both come later, and neither one can rescue a missed deadline. We walk you through what the eAppeal system actually requires, and what happens on day 31. This is general information, not legal advice. Full episode: Fedlegalhelp.com/podcast

08/28/2026

8.28.26 The Labor Department is notifying employees who requested disability accommodations that a spreadsheet of their information — names, duty locations, and functional-limitation categories like mental health, pregnancy, and chronic health conditions — was emailed to a personal email address, more than once. DOL says it learned of the incident July 22 and that no Social Security numbers or specific diagnoses were included. The Rehabilitation Act requires agencies to keep medical information from the accommodation process confidential — and for many affected employees, the delay or denial of the underlying request may matter even more than the breach. Deadlines in the federal EEO process are short: generally 45 days to contact an EEO counselor. This is general information, not legal advice. If this is you, our firm offers free consultations — we want to hear from you.

08/28/2026

8.28.26 You remember the Fork in the Road email — and the kitchen-table math that came with it. A new Partnership for Public Service analysis matched 20,557 employees who left under the Deferred Resignation Program to brand-new hires in the same agency component and job series, 8,642 of them brought on before the people they replaced had even left. The replacements average 1.4 GS grades lower, and 63% have never worked in the federal government. Congress warned against across-the-board buyouts in 1997 and wrote it into law in 2002. Whether you took the fork or stayed and carried what was left, this is general information, not legal advice. One-word verdict in the comments: AGAIN or NEVER?

08/28/2026

8.28.26 The EEOC has been losing all year — to its own Chair. Andrea Lucas told a reporter she has "a conservative view of civil rights," and since February 2025 her agency has moved to abandon at least seven lawsuits it filed for trans and nonbinary workers, while she personally recruits the plaintiffs she prefers on camera. Every federal employee should know her name, because the agency that enforces your civil rights is quietly deciding which ones it still enforces. This is commentary and general information, not legal advice — every case is different. If your own EEO case is caught in the churn, talk to a federal employment attorney — and come back next week, because it's Petty Friday, every Friday.

08/27/2026

8.27.26 A quicker decision is not a better decision if the employee cannot get the evidence. The EEOC’s proposal would change how federal employees file complaints, add related claims, access an EEOC judge and discovery, pursue administrative class complaints, and recover attorney fees. These details matter. They affect whether employees have a meaningful chance to prove discrimination and obtain relief.

This is a proposal, not a final rule. The EEOC says complaints already being processed would not be affected. Keep meeting your current deadlines—do not substitute the proposed deadlines. Southworth PC is preparing our response and keeping our clients’ cases moving. Read our initial breakdown: fedlegalhelp.com/EEObreakdown

Which of these five changes should I explain further? Please keep private case details out of the comments.

08/27/2026

8.27.26 I listened to the EEOC meeting yesterday. Here’s an exchange federal employees should know about. Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal asked for a working group involving federal employees, practitioners, researchers, and advocates. That motion did not get a second. She then asked for 60 days to comment on this 150-page overhaul. That motion also received no second.

Chair Andrea Lucas’s response began: “Hearing no second, your time has expired.” Thirty additional days would give people more time to compare the rules, gather evidence, and explain what these changes would mean for real cases. That is a reasonable request. The Commission voted 2–1 to issue the proposal. This is not a final rule. The 30-day comment period runs from Federal Register publication.

Southworth PC called for meaningful public input before the vote. We’re preparing our response. Our initial breakdown, including what current clients need to know: fedlegalhelp.com/EEObreakdown

What do you want the Commission to understand? Please keep private case details out of the comments.

08/27/2026

8.27.26 Federal employees deserve a meaningful chance to prove discrimination. I oppose taking away your current choice to request the EEOC judge process before your agency decides your complaint. Yesterday’s vote proposed major changes. This is not a final rule. The EEOC says complaints already being processed would not be affected. Keep meeting your current deadlines.

Southworth PC raised concerns before the vote. We’re reviewing the proposal, preparing our response, and keeping our clients’ cases moving. Read our initial breakdown of what federal employees need to know: fedlegalhelp.com/EEObreakdown

What do you need explained next—current cases, discovery, or access to an EEOC judge? Please keep private case details out of the comments. This is just getting started.

The Commission voted 2–1 (Lucas and Panuccio yes, Kotagal no) to issue an NPRM overhauling the entire federal-sector EEO...
08/26/2026

The Commission voted 2–1 (Lucas and Panuccio yes, Kotagal no) to issue an NPRM overhauling the entire federal-sector EEO complaint process under 29 C.F.R. Part 1614. The headline changes: pre-complaint counseling is eliminated in favor of direct filing, with 60 days from the discriminatory event to file with the agency (Kotagal contrasted this with 300 days for private-sector workers and 180 for legislative-branch employees, and flagged a federal-court plausibility pleading standard at filing); the hearing election model is replaced with a hearing referral model — the agency must issue a prompt FAD, the complainant appeals to the renamed Office of Federal Sector, and OFS decides whether an AJ hearing is warranted, with no right to discovery; FADs would no longer need merits findings on each issue; and the EEOC would stop adjudicating class complaints entirely (prospective only — pending classes unaffected). Lucas's framing for the majority: successful complainants wait an average of 962 days before AJs, only 4.9% of FY2025 resolutions involved an actual hearing, and none of this touches statutory rights since hearings, counseling, and class procedures are "creatures of regulatory creation."

08/25/2026

8.25.26 The IRS went from a 100,000-person workforce to an expected 74,000 by year's end, and the man who ran it — 39 years, twice acting commissioner — told Fortune the real damage lands years from now. His words on DOGE's plan: "there's really no strategic document that's out there." The agency calls 2026 a historic, successful filing season; he says cutting people before replacement technology exists means less service and less enforcement, until no one can be confident taxpayers are complying — all while the discretionary budget slides from $12.2B to $11.2B, with $9.8B proposed for 2027 and Direct File on the chopping block. General information, not legal advice. If you're at the IRS, or your agency ran the same play: what broke first?

08/25/2026

8.25.26 OPM's own Federal Register estimate: roughly half of the ~2,400 misconduct removals agencies take each year could now run through OPM's suitability process instead — and starting September 2, appeals of those removals go to OPM, not the MSPB. Four national unions sued yesterday to stop it. I read all 26 pages of the complaint so you don't have to. This is general information, not legal advice — every case turns on its own facts. If a suitability notice lands, deadlines are short: talk to your union rep or get representation fast.

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