Look Who's Not on That Gay-Friendly List + More
This year, the intriguing question isn't which firms are on the list but which ones aren't.
November 17, 2017 at 01:41 PM
6 minute read
Almost every Big Law firm is on this list, except for You-Know-Who! Count them: 160 law firms made it to Human Rights Commission's index for promoting LGBTQ workplace equality. Of those, 127 firms got perfect 100-point scores—pretty damn impressive.
This year, the intriguing question isn't which firms are on the list but which ones aren't. One firm jumped out for its absence and that's—yes, you guessed it! Jones Day!
That's perhaps not shocking, considering that some of Jones Day's alums are active in championing anti-LGBTQ measures for the Trump administration. As I've reported, some have staked out high-profile anti-gay positions, like siding with the Colorado baker who's refusing to make wedding cakes for gay marriages, or arguing that employers have the right to fire people for sexual orientation.
To be fair, Jones Day is not the only Am Law 100 not on HRC's gay-friendly list. There are a few more that are conspicuously absent:
• Cahill Gordon & Reindel
• Cozen O'Connor
• Jackson Lewis
• Jones Day
• Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith
• Venable
• Williams & Connolly
I have no reason to believe that these firms are hostile to LGBTQ lawyers. For whatever reason, they just didn't bother to fill out the HRC survey. Maybe they knew their LGBTQ policies aren't up to snuff. Or maybe they just don't care. Or maybe their PR/marketing person forgot.
Hey, what about moi for federal judge? Maybe his legal brilliance is escaping me, but I honestly think many of us are better qualified to be a federal judge than Brett Talley. (He's Donald Trump's nominee for a federal district judgeship in Alabama.)
First of all, most lawyers I know are better at filling out forms than Talley. I'm talking about how he totally failed to disclose that he's married to a senior lawyer to the White House Counsel on his judgeship questionnaire. His wife is Annie Donaldson, who's a former Jones Day associate. (Anybody who's anybody in the Trump administration legal team has a Jones Day pedigree.)
That omission came out after the Senate committee voted to push his nomination forward. But who cares about veracity these days? It's so 2016.
So let's go back to his qualifications. You might recall the American Bar Association gave him a rare “unqualified” rating. That's not illogical, considering that his legal experience has been minimal. A 2007 Harvard Law School grad, Talley practiced law for about three years and has never tried a case. (Even I practiced for five years.)
So what else is in his arsenal of qualifications? His blogging. Apparently, he's got lots of strong views. In the aftermath of the Newtown elementary school shooting, for instance, he came out in defense of the National Rifle Association, pledging to support it “financially, politically and intellectually.” His views got him in trouble with Democratic members of the Senate Committee who questioned his impartiality as a future judge.
Let me just interject here that I think I'm already more qualified than Talley. Not only have I practiced law longer than he did, but I blog for a living, and people get angry about my writing, too. So why doesn't someone nominate me for the federal bench?
Alas, Talley might have an edge over me because he's a super blogger. BuzzFeed reports that Talley has written 16,381 posts on TideFans.com under the name BamainBoston—writings that he also failed to disclose to the Senate. According to Slate, “BamainBoston posted on that site more than three-and-a-half times per day for more than 12 years. Among the subjects that interested him: Alabama football, 'the first KKK,' Roe v. Wade, and sex between a babysitter and a 14-year-old.”
What range of topics! Talley does seem unusually prolific. If he gets in trouble for these posts and he fails to get confirmation, I'm sure he can always get a gig on an online news site where his output will be appreciated.
How magnanimous. I don't know how the Department of Justice brought this case with a straight face in the first place, but it did. As you might recall, a 61-year-old woman who laughed out loud during Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearings in January was arrested.
Here's the backstory, according to Politico: “[Desiree] Ali-Fairooz, an activist with the organization Code Pink, was convicted of disrupting Congress when she let out a laugh while reacting to Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby that Sessions' record of 'treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented.' She was found guilty in May, and was told she faced up to six months in jail.”
The good news is that the DOJ come to its senses and dropped charges against the woman. Yay! Pathetic that we have to cheer for what never should have taken place.
Talking about the obvious. Our sibling publication The Legal Intelligencer posed this question: “Why Millennial Lawyers Aren't Flocking to Top Pa. Cities.”
I won't get into to the analysis except to ask this: Is this really a mystery? Sorry to be a New York snob, but in my book, if you're in your 20s and the world is your oyster, you're not going to head to Pennsylvania. Actually, if you're in 40s or 50s, it's likely not your top choice either.
My next appearance: Women in the Workplace—What's Holding Us Back? (I'll be doing a girl-chat with Lauren Smith Brody, author of “The Fifth Trimester,” about work, parenting and the whole mess. I promise to keep it breezy.)
The Cornell Club of New York
Nov. 30, 2017 — 8 to 9:30 a.m.
(Sponsored by The New York Women's Bar Association Foundation Inc.)
Here's the link for the tickets to my event at Cornell Club:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllOpening Doors to 'Where Decisions Are Made': Judge Ann Claire Williams
6 minute readClifford Chance Further Modifies Lockstep to Better Reward Top Performers
2 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250