DLA Piper Earns 13th Consecutive Perfect score on Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index

1/28/21

DLA Piper is pleased to announce that for the 13th consecutive year the firm has earned a perfect score from the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), a national survey and report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. With a top rating of 100 percent, awarded to employers that "took concrete steps to establish and implement comprehensive policies, benefits and practices that ensure greater equity for LGBTQ workers and their families," DLA Piper was recognized as a "Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality" in the 2021 report.

More than 1,100 companies were featured in the report, which evaluates LGBTQ-related policies and practices including non-discrimination workplace protections, domestic partner benefits, transgender-inclusive healthcare benefits, competency programs and public engagement with the LGBTQ community.

“We are proud to have once again received a top score on the Corporate Equality Index in recognition of our efforts to promote an inclusive workplace where our diverse lawyers and staff have the opportunity to succeed and advance,” said Fenimore Fisher, DLA Piper’s chief diversity and inclusion officer. “Enacting policies and providing benefits that enable our teams to thrive allows the firm to better serve its clients and communities, and we appreciate the transparency and accountability that this report encourages.”

As part of DLA Piper's Diversity and Inclusion initiative, the firm’s global LGBTQ Resource Group, formally named Iris, serves as a forum and advisory body on matters important to the LGBTQ community and provides opportunities for engagement in a variety of initiatives. Additionally, the firm annually celebrates LGBT Pride Month in the US with hundreds of lawyers and staff, including straight allies, participating in nationally video-conferenced workshops designed to raise awareness of LGBTQ-related issues.

DLA Piper has also committed to following the Mansfield Rule, designed and continuously refined through Diversity Lab, an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in law. The Mansfield Rule was inspired by the NFL's Rooney Rule, named for former Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, which requires every NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach vacancies.

Last year, the firm achieved Mansfield 3.0 Certified Plus status, indicating that, in addition to considering candidate pools made up of at least 30 percent diverse lawyers, the firm also achieved actual representation of at least 30 percent women, lawyers of color, LGBTQ+ lawyers and lawyers with disabilities in key leadership roles, partner promotions and lateral hires. DLA Piper has participated in every iteration of the initiative, beginning with the inaugural version that launched in mid-2017, and is one of only 24 US firms to have received Certified Plus status each year since the inception of the rule. The firm has already committed to participate in the next round of certification, Mansfield 4.0.

DLA Piper also collaborates with StartOut, the nation's largest nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ entrepreneurs, to host the organization's StartOut Growth Lab accelerator in its San Francisco location. The Growth Lab provides LGBTQ founders with support for their emerging businesses through a program tailored to the participating entrepreneurs' goals, including advice and mentoring from DLA Piper attorneys and other professionals, as well as education, access to capital sources and networking opportunities.

Fenimore Fisher recently spoke at StartOut’s Equity Summit, which was presented virtually in November 2020 and focused on helping LGBTQ+ women and minority entrepreneurs thrive. Fisher spoke on a panel focused on the business case for diversity, equity and inclusion and how diversity increases

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