Morning Wrap: Law Firms Excel With Pro-LGBT Policies | D.C. Firms Host Charity Events This Week
Firms cheer the release of Human Rights Campaign's annual corporate equality index on policies for LGBT employees, LegalZoom expands into North Carolina, and Texas executes a death row inmate. This is a round-up of legal news from ALM and around the country.
November 19, 2015 at 04:28 AM
4 minute read
LGBT Friendly: Several law firms yesterday cheered the release of Human Rights Campaign's annual corporate equality index, which tracks how supportive firms are of gay and transgender employees. The legal industry did better than any other industry, with 95 organizations scoring a perfect on HRC's measure. That's almost double the companies in any other business sector, according to the data. A few of those ratings came after firms expanded their LGBT support offerings last year, such as when Nixon Peabody hired a diversity and inclusion specialist and when Wiley Rein established an “LGBT & Allies Affinity Group” in March, those firms said. AmLaw Daily has a thorough overview of the firms that gained or dropped in scores, and explained that some firms' lower ratings this year, like Willkie Farr & Gallagher, may be due to HRC's use of old information. Perhaps that explains why Howrey, no longer in existence, still gets a (falling, low) rating on its LGBT inclusion policies.
Texas Execution: Raphael Holiday, convicted for killing three children including his own one-year-old daughter by setting his wife's house on fire in 2000, was executed by the state of Texas using lethal injection Wednesday. The prisoner's recent appeals focused on dissatisfaction with his legal team after his lawyers told him in June there was no hope for additional appeals nor clemency, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Access to Justice Online: LegalZoom, the company that will draw up legal documents for customers online, will be able to operate in North Carolina, after litigation ended recently between the company and the state bar. The settlement could mean LegalZoom will be more welcome in other states as a way to expand legal services for people seeking them at a low cost, LegalZoom's leaders tell Bloomberg BNA.
Refugee History: Online social media was aflame yesterday after Roanoke, Virginia mayor David Bowers, a democrat, said his opposition to relocating Syrian refugees in Southern Virginia was akin to Japanese internment during World War II, a policy he praised. So Chris Geidner of Buzzfeed traced the court and executive branch actions leading up to and after the government ordered internment.
Upside of Arbitration: Arbitration may get a bad rap from no less than the New York Times, but AmLaw Litigation Daily columnist Jenna Greene has found the alternative dispute process' champion in Charlie Sheen. The actor, who said earlier this week he is HIV positive and was blackmailed so others would keep the news quiet, reportedly made all visitors to his home sign a non-disclosure agreement that contained an arbitration clause.
Bar Exam Results: The Houston Chronicle looks at the “legal letdown” in Texas: that 23.4 percent of students who graduated from Texas law schools and took the bar exam for the first time this year failed it.
Charity Work: Nossaman and the nonprofits Homeless Persons Representation Project Inc. and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless held an event at the law firm Tuesday night that raised $2,500 for each charity group, the firm said.
Trivia Announcement: Everybody Wins! DC, a mentoring and literacy nonprofit, will host its Ninth Annual Lawyers for Literacy Trivia Challenge at Kirkland & Ellis tonight beginning at 6:30. Thirteen teams from nine law firms will compete for the grant title of Liteerae Magister, or Master of Literacy. The event supports the group's child-mentoring program, which relies on adult professionals to read to public elementary school students during the school lunch hour once a week. Catherine Gartland of Everybody Wins has more info at [email protected].
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