Cleary Gottlieb Earns 100% Rating in Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index

Cleary Gottlieb received a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign in its “Corporate Equality Index 2016,” which rates LGBT equality in U.S. workplaces. The HRC also released a report of “Top Law Firms for Equality 2016,” and Cleary was one of 95 U.S. firms with a 100% rating.

This is the HRC’s 14th year rating the policies, benefits and practices that businesses implement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers. Among the criteria HRC reviews, and which Cleary meets for our LGBT colleagues, are:

• Having sexual orientation and gender identity nondiscrimination protections explicitly included in all operations, both within the U.S. and globally.
• Requiring U.S. contractors to abide by inclusive nondiscrimination policies.
• Implementing internal requirements prohibiting philanthropic giving to nonreligious organizations that have a written policy of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

HRC Foundation President Chad Griffin notes in his introduction to the 2016 report, “Today, businesses no longer reserve basic workplace fairness for part of their workforce, but are instead making protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity consistent across their global operations. This is not only a great step forward for the LGBT movement, but for the entire world.”

Cleary also earned a 100% rating in the HRC’s 2015 index. The complete 2016 index is available here.