daily report Monday, october 20, 2008 17 e VERYONE PAYING attention to the legal marketplace already knows that law firms wanting to prosper must embrace and support diversity. Clients are demanding it. Law students are insisting on it. As a result, the Web sites, firm résumés and promotional materials of almost every major law firm boldly announce a commit- ment to diversity. Without a doubt, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) law- yers are benefiting from this trend toward a more inclusive profession. Nevertheless, when it comes to the development of a truly supportive environment for LGBT legal professionals, there remains a good deal of work to be done. Over the past decade, much has changed with respect to the opportunities for and treatment of LGBT lawyers. In conservative states such as Georgia, this progress has been especially noteworthy. Openly gay and lesbi- an lawyers now can be found in most of Geor- gia’s largest law firms, as well as many smaller and medium-sized firms. Some of these law- yers have become partners and assumed lead- ership positions within their firms. More and more Georgia firms are offering domestic partnership insurance benefits in an effort to curb some of the financial inequities caused by the inability of same-sex couples to marry. The Stonewall Bar Association—Georgia’s bar association for LGBT legal profession- als and their allies—was formed in 1995 and boasts more than 230 members. Nearly 20 state and federal judges attended the Stone- wall Bar’s annual awards dinner last year. LGBT affinity groups are open and active at the law schools at the University of Geor- gia, Georgia State University and Emory University. An increasing number of Georgia law firms sponsor the Human Rights Cam- paign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, thus putting hard dol- lars behind the struggle for LGBT equality. Additionally, four law firms with offices in Georgia scored 100 percent on HRC’s 2008 Corporate Equality Index, which applies spe- cific criteria to measure the extent to which employers treat their LGBT employees fairly. They were: Alston & Bird, Holland & Knight, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker and Powell Goldstein. In the pro bono arena, several of Georgia’s most well-known law firms participated in challenging Amendment One, the Georgia constitutional amendment banning same- sex marriage in Georgia and imposing other legal disabilities on same-sex couples. It is fair to say that none of these examples could have been given 10 years ago. This is progress. Yet the progress we have seen in Georgia has largely been fostered by national trends that have become too substantial for Georgia firms to lightly disregard. In 2008, 195 busi- nesses, consumers of legal services, scored 100 percent on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. This list includes many of the most successful corporations in the country— businesses that most any law firm would love to have as clients. Business leaders who value their LGBT employees enough to make this list may well consider whether their provider of legal services treats its LGBT employees fairly, and savvy law firms are taking this cue daily report diversity trending toward equality laWrie deMoreSt is a partner in alston & Bird’s product liability practice group, an immediate past co-chair of the Human rights Campaign Board and an HrC Foundation board member. JeFFrey J. SWart is a commercial litigation partner at alston & Bird. He is the immediate past president of the stonewall Bar association of Georgia. See Equality, page 18 “The only way to get equality is for two people to get the same thing at the same time at the same place.” —Thurgood Marshall Executive Search | Professional Placement | Traditional Staffing 404.252.9422 • firstproinc.com “When I established firstPRO in 1986, our goal was to provide the very best talent in the marketplace. We have grown to over $40 million in annual revenue and are now one of the fastest growing independently owned firms in the country. firstPRO is ranked #1 Contingency Executive Search, #4 Retained Executive Search, #5 Temporary Employment Agencies and the #7 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned Firm in Atlanta (certified by WBENC) by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. On behalf of all 138 employees, over 100 of whom are Atlanta-based recruiters, we remain passionately dedicated to our clients and committed to the professionals we represent.” -- April Fawcett Nagel, CEO
Transcript
dailyreport Monday, october 20, 2008 17
e VERYONE PAYING attention to the legal marketplace already knows that law firms wanting to prosper must
embrace and support diversity. Clients are demanding it. Law students are insisting on it. As a result, the Web sites, firm résumés and promotional materials of almost every major law firm boldly announce a commit-ment to diversity. Without a doubt, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) law-yers are benefiting from this trend toward a more inclusive profession. Nevertheless, when it comes to the development of a truly supportive environment for LGBT legal professionals, there remains a good deal of work to be done.
Over the past decade, much has changed with respect to the opportunities for and treatment of LGBT lawyers. In conservative states such as Georgia, this progress has been especially noteworthy. Openly gay and lesbi-an lawyers now can be found in most of Geor-gia’s largest law firms, as well as many smaller and medium-sized firms. Some of these law-yers have become partners and assumed lead-ership positions within their firms. More and more Georgia firms are offering domestic partnership insurance benefits in an effort to curb some of the financial inequities caused by the inability of same-sex couples to marry. The Stonewall Bar Association—Georgia’s bar association for LGBT legal profession-als and their allies—was formed in 1995 and
boasts more than 230 members. Nearly 20 state and federal judges attended the Stone-wall Bar’s annual awards dinner last year.
LGBT affinity groups are open and active at the law schools at the University of Geor-gia, Georgia State University and Emory University. An increasing number of Georgia law firms sponsor the Human Rights Cam-paign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, thus putting hard dol-lars behind the struggle for LGBT equality. Additionally, four law firms with offices in
Georgia scored 100 percent on HRC’s 2008 Corporate Equality Index, which applies spe-cific criteria to measure the extent to which employers treat their LGBT employees fairly. They were: Alston & Bird, Holland & Knight, Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker and Powell Goldstein.
In the pro bono arena, several of Georgia’s most well-known law firms participated in
challenging Amendment One, the Georgia constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Georgia and imposing other legal disabilities on same-sex couples. It is fair to say that none of these examples could have been given 10 years ago. This is progress.
Yet the progress we have seen in Georgia has largely been fostered by national trends that have become too substantial for Georgia firms to lightly disregard. In 2008, 195 busi-nesses, consumers of legal services, scored 100 percent on HRC’s Corporate Equality
Index. This list includes many of the most successful corporations in the country—businesses that most any law firm would love to have as clients. Business leaders who value their LGBT employees enough to make this list may well consider whether their provider of legal services treats its LGBT employees fairly, and savvy law firms are taking this cue
daily report diversity
trendingtowardequality
laWriedeMoreSt is a partner in alston & Bird’s product liability practice group, an immediate past co-chair of the Human rights Campaign Board and an HrC Foundation board member.
JeFFreyJ.SWart is a commercial litigation partner at alston & Bird. He is the immediate past president of the stonewall Bar association of Georgia.
See Equality, page 18
Georgia scored 100 percent on HRC’s 2008 Index. This list includes many of the most
“The only way to get equality is for two people to get the same thing at the same time at the same place.”
—Thurgood Marshall
Executive Search | Professional Placement | Traditional Staffing
404.252.9422 • firstproinc.com
“When I established firstPRO in 1986, our goal was to provide the very best talent in the marketplace. We have grown to over $40 million in annual revenue and are now one of the fastest growing independently owned firms in the country. firstPRO is ranked #1 Contingency Executive Search, #4 Retained Executive Search, #5 Temporary Employment Agencies and the #7 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned Firm in Atlanta (certified by WBENC) by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. On behalf of all 138 employees, over 100 of whom are Atlanta-based recruiters, we remain passionately dedicated to our clients and committed to the professionals we represent.” -- April Fawcett Nagel, CEO
from their clients. On campus, law schools are accounting
for LGBT students in their statistics, at the initiative of the National Association for Law Placement. Law firm recruiters report that even straight graduates are evaluating whether firms have LGBT-supportive poli-cies as they weigh competing job offers—apparently viewing a firm’s stance on LGBT issues as a good indicator of the firm’s over-all culture and values. In September, 130 law firms attended the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association career fair in San Francisco, specifically recruiting LGBT law students. This past year the American Bar Association created a Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, which has as its mission “to secure for les-bian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons full and equal access to and participation in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system.” There can be little doubt that these larger trends have influenced how Georgia firms value their LGBT lawyers, or that these trends will continue to be the impetus for progress in this area.
Despite the substantial improvements that have been made over a relatively short time period, there remains a good deal of work to be done before LGBT lawyers achieve full equality in the legal profession—in Georgia or elsewhere. While many firms have com-mitted to refrain from discrimination against LGBT individuals, such a commitment is purely voluntary in Georgia. Fewer than 20 states prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and only six prohibit dis-
crimination on the basis of gender identity. Georgia is not one of them.
Few lawyers outside metro-Atlanta are members of the Stonewall Bar Association, and particularly outside of Atlanta, reports of outright judicial hostility to LGBT law-yers or litigants crop up from time to time. A
18 dailyreport Monday, october 20, 2008
daily report diversity
equality,from page 17 GeorGia law firm rankinGsBelow are the points awarded to law firms with Georgia offices by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s report in its annual Corporate Equality Index. A perfect score is 100.
Alston & Bird 100
Duane Morris 80
Fish & Richardson 75
Holland & Knight 100
Hunton & Williams 75
Kilpatrick Stockton 90
King & Spalding 95
Littler Mendelson 95
Lord, Bissell & Brook* 80
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker 100
Powell Goldstein 100
Seyfarth Shaw 95
Sutherland 85
Troutman Sanders 90
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice
65
evaluated on 11 factors related to sexual orientation including policies, training benefits and resources.
*now Locke Lord bissell & Liddell
Source: Human Rights Campaign Foundation
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recent survey by the State Bar of California suggests that many LGBT lawyers continue to experience discrimination, but they are more reluctant than other groups to report such discrimination to firm management. In firms that provide domestic partnership insurance benefits, significant financial ineq-uities persist, because the tax laws impute, and thus tax, income with respect to benefits provided to an employee’s partner—income that is not imputed to a spouse.
Firms truly committed to the goal of LGBT equality have plenty of tools at their disposal to initiate and sustain progress. First and foremost, firm leadership should explicitly communicate a commitment to a culture of inclusion and equal treatment for LGBT attorneys. LGBT lawyers should be
given equal opportunities to interact with and market to the firm’s clients.
Partners of LGBT employees should be included on equal footing with spouses of married employees with respect to firm events. Domestic partnership insurance benefits should be made available, and consideration should be given to “gross-ing up” the income of the employee taking advantage of such benefits, in order to offset the inequitable tax treatment. Leave poli-cies for the care of family members should be adjusted to treat domestic partners and spouses identically.
Diversity training should include training on LGBT issues, and orientation programs for new lawyers should include discussion of the firm’s policy of full inclusion for LGBT lawyers in firm culture and business.
Pro bono efforts with respect to LGBT issues should be supported and encouraged. Recruiting and marketing materials that refer to diversity efforts should explicitly address a firm’s commitment to LGBT equality. Steps such as these can make the legal profession in Georgia more equitable, welcoming and productive for LGBT lawyers.
If Georgia law firms will take these kinds of initiatives, instead of doing the minimum demanded by national trends, LGBT lawyers in Georgia may eventually secure equality the way Justice Thurgood Marshall defined it. DR
dailyreport Monday, october 20, 2008 19
daily report diversity
given equal opportunities to interact with
to read the Human rights Campaign Foundation’s report go to dailyreportonline.com.
ACLEContinuing Legal EducationFor the Whole Lawyer
ATLANTA BAR ASSOCIATION Lincoln on Professionalism
Tuesday, October, 28, 2008 9:00 am - 11:15 am
State Bar of Georgia • I04 Marietta Street
2 CLE, including 1 Trial & 2 Professionalism
In his law practice, Abraham Lincoln demonstrated in exemplary fashion the qualities of legal and personal professionalism to which all lawyers should aspire. This Professionalism CLE seminar, using an engaging, documentary-style format, is based on Lincoln’s life as a lawyer. It uses his own writings and reflections on the practice of law, as well as those of his colleagues and peers, as its foundation.
To register call the Atlanta Bar Association at 404-521-078, email [email protected] or register online at www.atlantabar.org.
Timothy W. FloydMercer University School of Law
W. Ray PersonsKing & Spalding LLP
Bettina YipAT&T Mobility
ModeratorsC. David ButlerShapiro Fussell LLP
A. Bryan BaerFoltz Martin, LLC
Hon. Hugh LawsonU. S. District Court, MDGA
Hon. Thelma Wyatt Cummings MooreSuperior Court of Fulton County
C. King AskewBrinson Askew Berry Seigler Richardson & Davis LLP
Hon. Roy E. BarnesThe Barnes Law Group
B. J. BernsteinThe Bernstein Firm PC
Panelists
PerfeCT sCoresThese Georgia employers earned 100 percent of points awarded for employment practices related to sexual orientation by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in its annual Corporate Equality Index. The eight were designated 2008 best places to work for LGBT workplace issues.
Alston & Bird
Choicepoint
The Coca-Cola Co.
ING North America
Newell Rubbermaid
Powell Goldstein
SunTrust Banks
United Parcel ServiceSource: Human Rights Campaign Foundation
