Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Act calls for the federal financial regulatory agencies to “ensure, to the maximum extent possible,” the fair use of minority and women-owned businesses in “all” the agencies’ activities. The agencies must also assess their regulated entities’ diversity practices, and consider the diversity of not only potential contractors, but subcontractors. Section 342’s purpose is clear: to ensure that the agencies, the entities they regulate, and their contractors, and the companies bidding for their work, each engage the participation of minority and women-owned businesses “to the maximum extent possible.”
The impact of Section 342 cannot be overstated. It governs such colossal institutions as the Treasury, FDIC, SEC, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. By governing their regulated agencies, it also controls investment advisers, broker-dealers, every entity that offers the protection of federally insured funds, banks, credit unions, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, other major financial institutions, each of their contractors and subcontractors, and every company bidding to get work from them.
Moreover, the contractors impacted by Section 342 are not limited to the financial sector. They are the companies providing the agencies and regulated entities with paper; making their copies; providing maintenance services, staffing services, and marketing services; contracting with them to build their buildings and lay their floors; providing them with lighting, escalators, and elevators; offering them architectural and accounting services; supplying them with food, trucks, furniture, etc. Each of these businesses could require legal services, and Section 342 calls for all of them to maximize their use of minority and women-owned businesses.
There are also federal, state, and local laws and regulations akin to Section 342, many of them not governing the financial sector.
The mission of the NAMWOLF Dodd-Frank Ad Hoc Committee is to maximize the business opportunities Section 342 and its state and local counterparts represent for minority and women-owned law firms, specifically, NAMWOLF member firms, across the country. In conjunction with this mission, we will be engaging in a national campaign to raise the country’s awareness about NAMWOLF, the excellence of its member law firms, the purpose of supplier diversity programs, and the efficiency and profitability of turning to diverse providers such as NAMWOLF member law firms.