Ropes & Gray Recognized Throughout 2015 for its Lasting Commitment to Workplace Diversity

Ropes & Gray continues to be recognized as one of the legal industry’s most honored firms for diversity, excelling in 2015 in the most prestigious global rankings for overall diversity, equality and inclusiveness.

In June 2015, for a seventh straight year, the results of the respected 2016 Vault “Best Law Firms for Diversity” rankings underscored how Ropes & Gray’s decades-long commitment to the recruitment, retention, and advancement of people of diverse backgrounds has continued at all levels of the firm. In its ranking, Vault recognized Ropes & Gray as one of the top five firms for overall diversity, and in key ranking categories positioned the firm as one of the top five firms for its success supporting the advancement of LGBT inclusiveness, individuals with disabilities, women, military veterans and minorities. Ropes & Gray is the only firm to be ranked in the top five in all of Vault’s diversity categories for seven consecutive years.

In May 2015, the inaugural Law360 Minority Report recognized Ropes & Gray as a leading firm for its inclusiveness based upon the firm’s minority representation at both the partner and non-partner levels, and on the firm’s total number of minority attorneys. The new distinction complemented the firm’s top diversity rankings that have historically underscored the firm’s embedded commitment to inclusiveness.

Recognized as a national benchmarking tool on corporate policies pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees, Ropes & Gray has also consistently earned the top rating of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC) Corporate Equality Index, and received the accolade for a seventh straight year in 2015. The HRC ranking underscores the firm’s commitment to LGBT inclusiveness during a year when Ropes & Gray appellate & Supreme Court partner Doug Hallward-Driemeier argued a pivotal question before the U.S. Supreme Court that examined whether the 14^th Amendment requires states to recognize marriages between individuals of the same-sex, even if the state itself prohibits same-sex marriage. The justices ruled 5-4 in favor of Ropes & Gray’s plaintiffs in June 2015.

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association named in August 2015 Ropes & Gray the winner of its Law Firm Diversity Award for 2015. The firm was recognized for its outstanding commitment to the recruitment, retention and promotion of Asian Pacific American lawyers to partnership and firm leadership roles and was lauded by the NAPABA president George C. Chen as having a “long and proud history of being an industry leader when it comes to workplace diversity.”

The firm was named a finalist for 2015 for the Thomas L. Sager Minority Corporate Counsel Association Award for its commitment to improving the hiring retention and promotion of women and diverse lawyers, and received recognition from the New York Law Journal as a 2015 Diversity Initiative honoree, one of ten law firms and legal organizations recognized for confronting barriers to attracting, training, retaining or supporting diverse talent. The firm previously was honored with the Sager Award in 2012 and 2013.

As part of its commitment to diversity, and in lasting memory of accomplished Ropes & Gray trial lawyer Roscoe Trimmier, the firm’s first African-American partner and a pioneering leader of the firm’s diversity efforts, Ropes & Gray established the Roscoe Trimmier Jr. Diversity Scholarship, which will provide up to five outstanding second-year law students with a $25,000 award to offset the expenses of their legal education. More information about the scholarship, Mr. Trimmier’s tremendous career, and his commitment to diversity is available here.

For more information about Ropes & Gray’s commitment to diversity, please see Our World: Diversity and Inclusion at Ropes & Gray.

The Law360 Minority Report and the list of the 50 best law firms for minority partners is available at their site; a subscription is required.