Rights Group Gives Big Firms 100% Rating
Dozens of well-known law firms are among a record 195 employers receiving top ratings in a Corporate Equality Index that has reportedly just been released by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
Billed as a report card on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality in Corporate America, the survey (PDF) found that more employers than ever before are offering workplace protections to employees who are discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. A growing number also are concerned about the issue of promoting a working environment that is fair to all employees.
Describing the progress made by employers since the survey was inaugurated in 2002 as remarkable, the foundation says in an introductory letter that “There is no doubt that governments will have to play catch-up with businesses that have raced to provide fair workplaces for their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.”
Among the law firms scoring 100 percent, the survey says, are: Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld; Alston & Bird; Arnold & Porter; Bingham McCutchen; Bryan Cave; Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; Crowell & Moring; Dewey Ballantine; Dickstein Shapiro; Dorsey & Whitney; Faegre & Benson; Foley & Lardner; Foley Hoag: Heller Ehrman; Holland & Knight; Jenner & Block; Kirkland & Ellis; Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel; Latham & Watkins; McDermott Will & Emery; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo; Morrison & Foerster; Nixon Peabody; O’Melveny & Myers; Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; Powell Goldstein; Sidley Austin; and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.
