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| January 28, 2008 |
By: Alana Roberts |
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t may have been a small gesture, but it meant a lot to Gregory Baldwin, an openly gay partner practicing in white collar criminal defense and complex corporate litigation at Holland & Knight.
Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights organization, recognized the firm’s inclusive workplace policies and benefits for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees. The firm was one of 195 companies that earned a perfect score on the campaign’s 2008 corporate equality index.
Baldwin is proud of the award and was impressed that the firm’s managing partner, Howell Melton Jr., went with his wife to accept the award in person.
“I suppose to a lot of people, [they’d say], ‘Duh, the boss is accepting the award,’ ” he said. “If the managing partner is willing to put himself out personally to accept the award … for that group, you know damned well he’ll stand up for any other group.”
Law firms — particularly large law firms — are more actively recruiting openly gay lawyers. Attendance at the annual Lavender Law career fair has spiked over the last few years.
Still only 13 South Florida law firms reported having any openly gay lawyers and many indicated they do not track those statistics.
Holland & Knight had the highest number of openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender attorneys in South Florida, according to the Daily Business Review’s annual Diversity Scorecard survey.
Bilzin Sumberg ranked second, with four GLBT attorneys.
Bilzin has recruited at the Lavender Law career fair for two years, has a domestic partnership healthcare benefit program for same-sex couples and has been a sponsor of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Miami Recognition Dinner for two years, said Marshall Pasternack, a partner and chair of the firm’s diversity committee.
Criminal defense attorney Yery Marrero, who is openly gay, said it’s easy to identify gay-friendly law firms — and while few, the number is growing.
Those firms are typically willing to support gay legal rights groups such as Lambda Legal, of which she is a national board member.
Marrero, a partner with Marrero Bozorgi, started working for the group’s annual fundraiser in Miami four years ago and has seen the number of firm sponsors grow from one the first year to seven in 2007.
“If you have a firm giving to some causes but not to others then you know what belief system the firm has,” she said.
The firms with South Florida offices that have given to Lambda Legal include Akerman Senterfitt, Baker & McKenzie, Greenberg Traurig, Hogan & Hartson, Holland & Knight, McDermott Will & Emery and White & Case.
Nationally, the number of openly GLBT attorneys remains small but has jumped 71 percent from 1,100 to 1,884 in the last five years, according to the National Association for Law Placement’s Directory of Legal Employers has grown since it began analyzing the information in 2003. The latest figure represents 1.52 percent of the profession.
Although, the number of GLBT attorneys has grown and more firms are courting them, retention continues to be a problem experts say. Often law firm leaders say they accept and welcome their GLBT lawyers, but then put limits on how open they can be about their sexual orientation or gender identity to clients.
Arin Reeves, executive director of The Athens Group, said firms often will hire a gay attorney but unlike straight attorneys firm management expects GLBT attorneys to keep their personal life out of the office.
She calls it the “heterosexual privilege.”
And Reeves contends it has an impact on retention of GLBT attorneys.
She said to be truly inclusive firms must allow their GLBT attorneys to also feel comfortable enough to be themselves.
“It’s still an issue at a lot of firms throughout the country,” she said. “If you’re married to someone of the opposite sex you don’t have any problems talking about your husband or your wife in any situation. But, if you’re in a relationship or married to somebody of the same sex then imagine being told you can’t really talk about yourself or you have to get permission in order to be able to talk about your spouse or significant other.”
While GLBT employment has expanded in the legal community, there is no protection under federal or Florida employment law.
The U.S. House passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in November to protect workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. A version was first introduced in the 1974, illustrating decades of political resistance.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is leading the long-shot Senate effort for passage, but even if it passes, President Bush has threatened a veto. And supporters know they don’t have the votes for an override.
Twenty states offer similar protection, and anti-discrimination laws have been passed in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
And efforts to achieve protection for GLBT workers is taking less time than it did for other groups, Baldwin said.
“The degree of change and acceptance has been nothing short of amazing and was much faster than it’s been for women and minorities,” he said. “Are there still people who are bigoted? Yes. [But] it’s becoming less and less fashionable and less and less acceptable.”
Not every law firm agrees that sexual orientation should even be part of the dialogue.
One law firm took exception to a question on The Review’s Diversity Scorecard survey, which sought the number of openly GLBT lawyers at South Florida’s law firms. Because of that question, the law firm of Doumar Allsworth Laystrom Voigt Wachs Mac Iver & Adair in Fort Lauderdale, declined to respond to The Review’s survey.
Emerson Allsworth, the firm’s office manager, said in a letter, “Our executive committee finds your inclusion of the homosexual question as objectionable. Therefore we decline to participate in such a survey.”
When asked why the firm took such a stance, Allsworth said in a phone interview, “We had an executive committee meeting, we were courteous, we wrote you a letter. We don’t think we have to give you a reason for the reason. We found it objectionable and therefore declined. I think the letter speaks for itself, that’s all I have to say. Thank you.”
Alana Roberts can be reached at aroberts@alm.com or at (305) 347-6648.
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