Ropes & Gray is committed to ensuring that its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lawyers are comfortable in the workplace. As part of this commitment, lawyers at the firm organized the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lawyer's Forum (the GLBT Forum) to provide an additional level of social and professional support to its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender attorneys. The GLBT Forum sponsors several events throughout the year, including a gathering each summer for interested summer associates. The Forum also sponsors attendance at the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association (MLGBA) Annual Spring Dinner and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) Annual Spirit of Justice Dinner in Boston, as well as at the Lambda Legal Liberty Awards Dinner and the ACLU LGBT & AIDS Project's Annual Summer Attorney Reception in New York City.

Members of the GLBT Forum also participate in the hiring process and act as resources for GLBT summer associates. In 2003, the GLBT Forum developed a plan to improve the firm's GLBT-targeted recruiting efforts, which was approved by the Hiring Group, and Ropes & Gray has sponsored and participated in the Lavender Law Conference Career Fair for the past five years. Ropes & Gray also participates in LeGaL's annual New York City Metro Area LGBT Legal Career Fair for 1L Law students at Cardozo School of Law and hosts/sponsors LGBT events at various law schools, including the Lambda Law 1L Networking Reception at The George Washington University School of Law.

In addition, GLBT Forum members help to identify and coordinate firm-sponsored gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights pro bono matters. For example, members of the Forum have been active as co-counsel, representatives or amici in the Goodridge case in Massachusetts, as well as in New York marriage cases. 

The firm encourages the professional development of its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lawyers through interactions with the larger gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender legal and business communities. Ropes & Gray attorneys are actively involved in various ways with the Boston Alliance for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Youth (BAGLY), the MLGBA, the Greater Boston Business Council, GLAD, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Law Association Foundation of Greater New York (LeGaL), and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). For the past several years, a team of Ropes & Gray lawyers has participated in the Boston AIDSWalk.

Moreover, the GLBT Forum works to attract notable gay and lesbian individuals to the firm to speak on current topics. In the fall of 2006, the firm welcomed Susan Sommer, Senior Counsel to Lambda Legal, to speak about the marriage rights cases in New York and New Jersey.  Susan argued a part of the New York case before the New York State Court of Appeals. Ropes & Gray served as counsel for amicus curiae GLAD in the New York cases and submitted a brief in support of marriage equality. Previously, in February 2005, the GLBT Forum sponsored a firm-wide panel discussion entitled, “Post Goodridge: The State of the Gay Union. A Panel Discussion with Mary Bonauto, State Senator Jarrett Barrios and Professor Libby Adler.” Mary Bonauto is the lawyer from GLAD who successfully argued the same-sex marriage case in front of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Jarrett Barrios is an openly gay member of the Massachusetts State Senate and leader of the efforts to defeat a proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment in Massachusetts. Libby Adler is a professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law who has spoken and written on issues of gender and sexual identity and gay marriage. Furthermore, the GLBT Forum has sponsored staff attorneys from GLAD to speak on pending GLBT civil rights matters, including the constitutional challenge to Massachusetts’ sodomy laws. (Indeed, members of the GLBT Forum have been active as co-counsel or representatives of amici in both of these SJC cases.)

The success of the firm’s diversity commitment in regard to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender attorneys was confirmed by Vault.com’s 2007 survey of the nation’s 150 most prestigious law firms, which gave Ropes & Gray a “Top Twenty” ranking in “Diversity for Gays and Lesbians.”

For more information about the firm's diversity commitment as it applies to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender attorneys at Ropes & Gray, please contact Stuart Yothers or Christine Langowski. Inquiries are strictly confidential.

If you are interested in viewing the personal biographies of some of the GLBT Forum members, please click on the names below: