When Joydeep Sengupta was transferred to Paris in 2010 from Skadden Arps in New York, he asked a fellow lawyer in town whether there were any business networks for LGBT+ lawyers in France.

"Why would you want to box yourself in at work for something that has nothing to do with work?" the lawyer said.

Sengupta, who is now a counsel in the compliance, investigations and regulatory practice at Mayer Brown in Paris, said he was not totally surprised by the pushback. But he continued to ask around and often found the same reaction—even from other gay and lesbian lawyers.

"Everyone was very polite," he recalled recently, "but it was also like something you would have heard 20 years ago in the U.S."

Knowing that LGBT+ networks had become an important bridge for U.S. and U.K. law firms to bring lawyers and clients together—and that Mayer Brown was an early and committed supporter—Sengupta persisted, enlisting the help of the firm's leadership in France, the U.S. and the U.K.

Their collective efforts paid off this June with the launch of the Paris LGBT+ Network, just in time to participate in Mayer Brown's Virtual Pride Parade, a monthlong series of webinars and other online events involving 300 participants drawn from clients, lawyers and staff around the globe.

Sengupta is hoping that establishing the Paris network at Mayer Brown will get the ball rolling on broader alliances of citywide or even countrywide business networks for LGBT+ lawyers. But he acknowledges that organizing such a network in France poses unique cultural challenges.

For one thing, even getting a handle on the number of LGBT+ lawyers in France is problematic under French law, which prohibits employers from collecting personal statistics on employees such as their religion, race, gender identity or sexual orientation.

The prohibition dates back to the post-World War II era, when the new Fifth Republic feared that data collection could be used as a tool for discrimination as it was during the Nazi occupation.

The Ordre des Avocats, which maintains standards and practices for French lawyers, does not keep figures on the number of lawyers in France who identify as LGBT+. Nor does it propose "any advice or recommendations to law firms concerning the recruitment or support" of LGBT+ lawyers, Théodore Malgrain, a spokesman, said by email.

This all helps explain why France has no equivalent of the Corporate Equality Index in the U.S. or the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in the U.K., benchmarking tools for employers based on data about their workforces.

"It comes from a good place," Sengupta said about the data laws. "Nobody wants to enable discrimination. But without meaningful data on recruitment, retention and promotion, it also makes it more difficult to see whether efforts at true inclusion are really working."

Another hurdle is that French business culture—officially, at least—enshrines a separation between personal and professional life that sits uneasily with work-based affinity groups such as LGBT+ or women's networks.

"The approach to these issues is quite different here" than in the U.S. or the U.K., said Matthieu Dulucq, a staff member of the Conseil National du Barreau (CNB), or French Bar Council, which represents 70,000 lawyers in France.

"In the Anglo-Saxon world, people differentiate themselves by elements of their identity—their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation—and they create a community based on these differences," Dulucq said.

"In France, we consider that everyone is a member of one community—this is the concept of 'égalité.' Discrimination is not tolerated, but we also don't feel the obligation to differentiate ourselves, and certainly not at work."

Stories told by a number of LGBT lawyers in Paris, who spoke to Law.com International on condition of anonymity, seem to bear out this dichotomy.

The lawyers said that they had experienced no overt discrimination in hiring or promotion, but that they did feel social pressure not to discuss their personal lives at the office, even from the partners designated as points of contact on diversity and inclusion.

One lawyer recalled making an effort to use nongendered language, such as "the person I'm seeing," during the internship period when law firms are considering whom to hire.

"It's so competitive—why give them a reason to say 'no'?" the lawyer said.

Another recalled how a senior partner bristled at the suggestion that the firm start a Pride group. "What people do in the bedroom has nothing to do with their work," the partner said.

The same partner did, however, green-light a proposal to get lawyers more involved in pro bono legal work on LGBT+ issues.

"If it was something that related to our work as lawyers, then it was fine," the lawyer recalled. "If it had to do with our lives as lawyers, the firm didn't see that as any of its business."

As discussions of diversity in the workplace and LGBT+ rights take on greater volume and urgency around the globe, French lawyers are organizing.

The first French association of LGBT+ lawyers was formed in 2018 in Paris and Marseilles. It has spoken out on a range of issues, including marriage equality in France and homophobia in North Africa and, until the COVID-19 lockdown, maintained an active social calendar.

The national bar groups are taking notice and moving in the direction of greater visibility.

The CNB and the Ordre des Avocats staff a mobile free clinic in Paris, called the Solidarity Bus, that devotes part of every Monday to consultations on issues specific to the LGBT+ population, including workplace discrimination, violence, family law and civil status.

The bar groups also support the annual Marche des Fiertés, or Pride Parade, in cities across France. The parades usually take place during June but this year have been postponed to Nov. 3.

In years past, the Solidarity Bus has parked in the vicinity of the Paris parade route to offer free legal advice. Last year, the Paris Bar also sent an open-roofed double-decker bus with "The lawyers are here to protect you" painted in rainbow colors on the side.

Mayer Brown is working with clients to host the first Paris LGBT+ Network event in early September, in cooperation with the firm's London LGBT+ network. The event will bring together Mayer Brown clients and attorneys at all levels and, COVID permitting, will have a social element, Sengupta said.

"It will take time and effort to effect meaningful change in this critical area across our global footprint," Jeremy Clay, the London-based managing partner of Mayer Brown, said in an email. "But we are committed to this and believe steps like these help to put us on the right path."