71 Law Firms (Including Dewey) Receive Perfect Scores for LGBT Policies
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The Human Rights Campaign has given perfect scores to 71 law firms in its 2013 Corporate Equality Index for policies benefiting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
Law firms are the most-represented industry among index participants getting a perfect score, according to a report (PDF) on the findings. America’s top 200 law firms were invited to participate in this year’s index, and 141 agreed. Besides the 71 firms that got perfect scores, another 35 firms received scores of 90 percent.
When the group released its first 2002 Corporate Equality Index, no law firm achieved a perfect score.
Failed law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf was among the firms with a perfect score. Another was Foley & Lardner, dinged last year with a 60 percent score because of one partner’s work for a group that opposes gay marriage, the Am Law Daily reports. The firm has told the Human Rights Campaign it will no longer represent gay-marriage opponents, according to Deena Fidas, deputy director of the campaign’s Workplace Project.
Firms were graded on five criteria. Points were given for equal employment opportunity, parity in employment benefits, diversity training and public support for equality. Points were deducted for public activity that would undermine LGBT equality.
A separate report (PDF) listed law firms and businesses that supported marriage equality or signed amicus briefs challenging the Defense of Marriage Act. They included Nixon Peabody; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Arnold & Porter; Baker & McKenzie; Edwards Wildman Palmer; Foley Hoag; Goulston & Storrs; Goodwin Procter; Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel; McCarter & English; Ropes & Gray; Seyfarth Shaw; Faegre Baker Daniels; Lindquist & Vennum; and Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi.
