Should the profession be proud to be so enlightened now? Or chagrined that it took so many firms so long? Either way you look at it, the jump in law firms that just got a “perfect” score for the way they treat LGBT employees, consumers and investors is notable.
In announcing its seventh annual Corporate Equality Index (.pdf) today, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation highlighted how its list of perfect scorers has grown by 33 percent — it now includes 259 businesses. But by our count, the law firms on that list increased by 78 percent over last year — there are now 64 of them.
Follow the jump for the rundown of firms we culled from the list. But first, a few things worth remarking on: 1) The list of first-timers includes a lot of white-shoe names and a wide geographic distribution, which we’d take as another sign that LGBT equality is becoming an increasingly mainstream priority at firms — or, cynically perhaps, that its marketability has grown. Or both. 2) Some California-rooted firms are only making the list now: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Littler Mendelson; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold; and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. 3) Another California-based firm, though, can boast of being the longest-running firm on the perfect list — Morrison & Foerster made it for the sixth year.
First year on the list (36)
- Arent Fox
- Baker & Daniels
- Brown Rudnick
- Clifford Chance US
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Debevoise & Plimpton
- Dewey & LeBoeuf
- DLA Piper
- Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge
- Fried, Frank, Haris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
- Haynes and Boone
- Howrey
- Husch Blackwell Sanders
- Littler Mendelson
- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
- Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler
- Perkins Coie
- Proskauer Rose
- Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
- Ropes & Gray
- Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold
- Seyfarth Shaw
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Squire, Sanders & Dempsey
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Thompson Coburn
- Troutman Sanders
- Vinson & Elkins
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
- Weil, Gotshal & Manges
- White & Case
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
- Winston & Strawn
Second year (16)
- Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bryan Cave
- Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
- Dickstein Shapiro
- Foley & Lardner
- Foley Hoag
- Holland & Knight
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
- Latham & Watkins
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo
- O’Melveny & Myers
- Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
- Sidley Austin
- Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal
Third year (8)
- Arnold & Porter
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Heller Ehrman
- McDermott Will & Emery
- Nixon Peabody
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
- Powell Goldstein
Fourth year (2)
- Alston & Bird
- Jenner & Block
Fifth year (1)
- Faegre & Benson
Sixth year (1)
- Morrison & Foerster
— Pam Smith
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