Clifford Chance set to launch gay network
Clifford Chance set to launch gay network" />Clifford Chance is setting up a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) network just months after settling a sexual orientation discrimination claim from former competition partner Michael Bryceland.
Gay rights advocacy group Stonewall called the firm's LGBT policy into question and requested a meeting with the magic circle firm after it emerged that it had been the subject of a claim (The Lawyer, 3 September).
Stonewall spokesman Jonathan Finney described the move as a "positive step". He said: "Our view is that establishing a lesbian and gay network group, which many organisations have done in various sectors, gives these staff a visible element within the workforce. Employers can then engage directly with the needs of staff."
Clifford Chance tax partner Stephen Shea, who has been active in setting up the LGBT group, said the firm established the network to further foster diversity, but also to respond to client demand. As reported by The Lawyer (21 May), JPMorgan now asks prospective panel firms for diversity statistics and companies such as Transport for London are following suit.
JPMorgan associate general counsel Tim Hailes praised Clifford Chance for setting up the LGBT network, adding: "We have a strong preference to partner with suppliers, including external counsel, who share our values."
Four sub-groups have been set up within the network to focus on the development of external client relationships and pro bono relationships, as well as on firmwide policy issues and the concerns of individual staff members.
Shea, who said that during his 25 years at Clifford Chance diversity has always been an integral part of the firm's ethos, said: "It's recognised that if you're an LGBT person and you're not able to be free and open about it, you have to think about it every minute of every day. That's a waste of time and it obstructs people's potential."
Sexual orientation discrimination has become an issue at other law firms. Sullivan & Cromwell settled a high-profile claim with a former associate just two weeks ago.
To hear more on this, listen to the December edition of The Lawyer Podcast. Click here to listen.
To find out more about Clifford Chance's LGBT network, read Stephen Shea's article in the Diversity Special report.
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Readers' comments (14)
Anonymous | 6-Nov-2007 12:27 pm
"visible element within the workforce"
How about if just everybody minded their own business, instead of making sexual orientation an issue? To normal people - whether gay or straight - work and sex are two different things. This really looks like a politically ubercorrect obsession.
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Anonymous | 6-Nov-2007 3:19 pm
LGBT visibility
It's great that Clifford Chance is joining a number of other City law firms in having its own LGBT network -- including Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Herbert Smith and Pinsent Masons -- and recognising the truth in the Stonewall tagline 'People perform better when they can be themselves'. The focus on sexual orientation is not about sex, but about discrimination and fear, and the impact (on performance at work) of hiding in the closet, or of suffering discrimination if you don't.
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Anonymous | 8-Nov-2007 6:59 pm
RE: "visible element within the workforce"
I laugh whenever I hear some moron drone on about how everyone gay or striaght should "mind their own business, instead of making sexual orientation an issue." FINE. Let's do that. This means that all you straight people have to quit talking about your spouses, your kids, your disgusting babies, your weddings, who you're dating, etc. Straightness is EVERYWHERE at work. All gay people want is to be able to come to work and casually mention or discuss certain aspects of life - the same things that straight people discuss all the time - without fear or embarassment.
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Anonymous | 8-Nov-2007 8:20 pm
RE: Visible element within the workforce
I wanted to respond to the first comment that "everyone should mind their own business". I think that you are missing the point. Whether we like it or not, sexual orientation affects everyone's lives in the workplace. Straight people talk about their dating, marriages, kids, etc. at work all the time. Its one of the ways that people get to know each other. LGBT people also need to have a safe work environment where they can also feel that they can openly talk about their dating, partners and kids and that being open will not adversely affect their career. Kudos to Clifford Chance for doing the right thing.
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Anonymous | 9-Nov-2007 10:33 am
safe work environment
I understand what you guys are saying, however, what does setting up a corporate "LGBT network" and counting gay/lesbian folks within a corporation have to do with people being open about themselves in informal situations? A few quotes from the text: "Gay rights advocacy group Stonewall called the firm's LGBT policy into question." "Employers can then engage directly with the needs of staff". "JPMorgan now asks prospective panel firms for diversity statistics and companies such as Transport for London are following suit." If gay folks are unable to talk about themselves openly then either the workforce are homophobic (then: don't recruit homophobes) or the gay employees' concerns are imaginary. And if there ever has been a case of corporate discrimination based on sexual preferences, like a promotion being put to a halt, that's not going to be solved by official exposure of gay/lesbian people either. "LGBT policies" and employers "engaging with the needs of the staff" are nonsense, what is that? My suggestion: just don't discriminate.
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Anonymous | 13-Nov-2007 2:40 pm
LGBT visibility
Surely LGBT visibility is about tackling ignorance, which is the root cause of discrimination. We now at least have a legal framework surrounding sexual orientation discrimination, which is a start, but is far from 'battle won'. Custom, habit and ingrained ignorance takes decades to eradicate (see race and sex discrimination) but visibility, and, yes, the odd case of making a fuss, is a necessary step. As someone who has faced discrimination in the workplace, I can tell the first poster that this has nothing to do with what I do in the bedroom, it is about who I am as a person. We can't just switch off being gay, it affects every aspect of our lives, and my experience suggests that where ignorance is tackled head-on, great strides can be made in gaining respect and achieving equal treatment.
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Anonymous | 29-Nov-2007 2:01 pm
LGBT
What a nonsense. Can I launch a left handers network? This network will cater for all left handers who feel left out when right handers get together. Sheer madness. Who cares? The majority of us do not.
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Anonymous | 29-Nov-2007 4:54 pm
Ignorance - superficial acceptance
If anything, the last comment is clear evidence for why such network support/development groups are necessary - even if law firms are only getting on the bandwagon because it helps them "appear" to mirror their clients' own diversity policies. They wouldn't be doing it otherwise.
There are so many complacent straight people who assume that, because there is slightly more gay visibility in the media, acceptance in polite, politically correct society, everything is perfectly fine and how can anyone possibly feel the need to raise his or her head above the parapet and complain. Believe it or not, there remains deep seated discrimination just beneath the surface and behind closed doors in all law firms! The last comment would seem to have been posted by someone who has never suffered the kind of discrimination that is being referred to. Of course the majority does not care, that is because you are the majority and not being discriminated against. In addition, one of the most frustrating phenomena is the issue of gay lawyers who do get promoted to partner level (admittedly a minority, often in employment and family departments - unsurprisingly due to the desire for firms to advertise their gay friendly credentials to clients in fields directly related to discrimination and civil partnership laws) and then take on an "I'm all right Jack" attitude and do nothing to improve the position of their gay colleagues for fear of rocking the boat or for purely selfish reasons. There is a hell of a long way to go.
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Anonymous | 6-Dec-2007 11:46 am
Creating issues that don't exist
Surely the creation of a special club for gays and lesbians encourages a 'them and us' attitude which didn't exist before. It's the same with Asian lawyers associations and black police officers' associations etc etc. If this is about stopping any form of discrimination then surely no one would mind me starting a white protestant heterosexual solicitors club would they? And no, I don't feel the need as I don't pigeon hole people by one specific characteristic, be it the colour of their skin or their orientation.
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Anonymous | 6-Dec-2007 1:46 pm
Last comment
What an idiotic comment! Of course no one would mind if you started a white Protestant heterosexual solicitors group...the reason you don't need to is that there is no discrimination against the majority/dominant grouping in any part of society. This is an age-old comeback from those who have never suffered discrimination and shows precisely why such groups are so important. What continues to appall me is that a profession uniformly consisting of intelligent and well-educated people can continue to be, on an individual basis, so socially conservative and - yes - discriminatory. Unfortunately, this kind of comment just displays a behaviour that is the root cause of all types of discrimination: ignorance. You joined a profession committed to justice and equal treatment under the law: perhaps time to reconsider how you personally fit into that.
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