Noticias

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4 Sep 2008

DLA Piper receives perfect score on Human Rights Campaign 2009 Corporate Equality Index

News

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(Washington, DC) – DLA Piper today announced today that the firm has received a perfect score, a 100 percent rating, on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) 2009 Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The firm is one of only 259 businesses nationwide to receive this distinction.

“We are proud to be recognized as a firm that embodies and celebrates the variety of cultures, identities and sexual orientations of our wonderfully talented and diverse lawyers and staff,” said Terry O’Malley US Managing Partner of DLA Piper. “As a firm with a global platform that spans some 25 countries worldwide, diversity is not only a core value of our firm, it is a way of life for our employees --and crucial to our overall success.”

Mike Davis, DLA Piper’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, added, “We are honored to receive a perfect rating from Human Rights Campaign, and proud to be acknowledged for being proactive in our efforts to recognize the importance of the diversity of our people and for our focus on continuing to enhance the inclusiveness of our firm culture. Our ultimate goal is to integrate our diversity and inclusion efforts into all facets of firm life and to maintain an environment where diversity of all kinds is both celebrated and leveraged to benefit each other and our clients.”

HRC is America’s largest civil organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. Each year, HRC invites the largest and most successful public and private companies in the United States to participate in the rating process. The CEI rates employers on a scale from 0 to 100 percent on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) employees, consumers and investors.

The Index, which this year rated 583 businesses, is based on factors such as non-discrimination policies, diversity training, and benefits for domestic partners and transgender employees. DLA Piper’s score was based on a variety of factors, including the firm’s inclusive health care benefits to employees with same-sex partners, diversity training including components on sexual orientation, and the firm’s support of their LGBT affinity groups. The firm also recently amended their official non-discrimination and anti-harassment/anti-retaliation policy language to specifically include protection against discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

About DLA Piper’s Diversity Initiatives

With diversity and inclusion being a key element of the firm's strategic plan, DLA Piper has created a diversity and inclusion initiative headed by a full-time national director who is supported by a team including a diversity and inclusion manager and two diversity and inclusion specialists. The diversity and inclusion efforts are further guided and supported by a national steering committee led by two partners from the firm’s executive committee and comprised of partners from each major office, the firm’s chief people officer and national director of professional development among others. The goal of the diversity and inclusion strategy is to increase diversity within the firm and to foster an inclusive environment in support of both the development of our people and the growth of our business.