Ropes & Gray Achieves Perfect Score in Corporate Equality Index

For the third consecutive year, Ropes & Gray earned a perfect score of 100 percent in the 2011 Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which rates American workplaces on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues.

The 2011 CEI ranked a total of 615 businesses, including 97 law firms, by evaluating their LGBT-related nondiscrimination and benefits policies, organizational competency on LGBT issues, and public engagement with the LGBT community. This year, 337 businesses achieved the top rating of 100 percent.

Since its inception in 2002, the HRC Corporate Equality Index has been both a roadmap and progress report for major U.S. businesses’ adoption of inclusive policies, practices and benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Ropes & Gray is committed to ensuring that its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lawyers are comfortable in the workplace. As part of this commitment, lawyers at the firm organized the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lawyer's Forum (the GLBT Forum) to provide an additional level of social and professional support to its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender attorneys. Ropes & Gray was recently ranked number 5 in a Business Insider list of the 25 firms with the most LGBT lawyers.
 
“At Ropes & Gray we take great  pride in our diversity accomplishments and we’re pleased to be recognized with a perfect CEI score for the third time,” said Diane Patrick, Labor & Employment partner and head of the firm’s Diversity Committee. “Our Diversity Committee has dedicated itself to the cultivation of a culturally rich and diverse community in the firm by providing support, education, mentoring, community service and an open dialogue with firm management and staff on diversity-related issues.”

In June, Ropes & Gray received a 2010 Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, recognizing the pro bono work related to the firm's representation of various GLBT individuals who have faced persecution in their home country and are seeking asylum.  In 2009 alone, the firms attorneys won asylum for 10 Immigration Equality clients – more than any other law firm in the country. These victories included asylum for a lesbian from India, a gay HIV-positive Jamaican and his son, a gay HIV-positive Ghanaian, a gay Ukrainian, and a gay man from the Dominican Republic.