“We’ve come to
realize that lawyers
really thrive in
an environment
of inclusion—and
this doesn’t just
mean diverse
lawyers, but all
lawyers.”
from those days, but many still make
individual calculations about how much
personal information they can safely reveal at work.
“One of the most obvious places
where issues arise concerning sexual
orientation is at the recruiting stage,”
Stewart says. “It somewhat frequently
arises when recruits have done work re-
lated to their GLBT status as a law stu-
dent or been involved in a leadership
role at their college GLBT organization,
and the entity might provide a refer-
ence. That’s something you’d normally
put on a resumé, but frequently that’s a
concern if they don’t know whether the
firm is going to discriminate.”
These challenges are compounded
by the fact that many firms simply
don’t discuss GLBT issues, making it
difficult for these attorneys to know
whether the firm believes it’s honoring
their privacy or it simply wants the is-
sue to go away.
“Firm management who may feel
they’re being appropriately respectful
of the privacy of gay lawyers by not
asking them personal questions such as
‘Do you want to bring your domestic
partner to this client dinner?’ are in-
stead sending a signal that GLBT law-
yers are supposed to be closeted, that
the families [of heterosexual lawyers]
have value, and the gay lawyers are sup-
posed to just be lawyers,” says Kelly
Dermody, a partner at Lieff Cabraser
Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco.
“If the leadership never uses the terms
gay, lesbian or GLBT, or if the firm is
completely silent, there’s a certain
message being sent.”
Legal employers don’t hear many
complaints from GLBT lawyers. Si-
lence, however, isn’t necessarily con-
sent. For its 2006 report, Challenges
to Employment and the Practice of Law
Facing Attorneys from Diverse Back-
grounds, the State Bar of California
surveyed lawyers who are female, 40
or older, GLBT or racial minorities.
It found that while all groups experi-
enced discrimination, 52 percent of
minority attorneys reported that dis-
crimination to their supervisor, as did
