Simmons retains crown as Stonewall's most gay-friendly firm
Simmons & Simmons was named the most gay-friendly law firm for the second-year running by LGB charity Stonewall as the legal sector makes strides on LGB issues.
Daniel Winterfeldt
The City firm ranked 19th in the top 100 of gay-friendly employers and was one of seven firms to feature in the list.
The firm’s LGBT Network co-chair, partner David Stone, said: “We’re very proud to participate in Stonewall’s comprehensive index. It’s great to see seven law firms ranked in the top 100 LGB-friendly employers - law can indeed be a welcoming workplace for members of the LGB community, whether fee-earners or business services staff.”
Over the last year Simmons has taken a lead on LGB issues, implementing two strands of internal diversity training - one for managers and one for the rest of firm - as well as carrying out diversity monitoring.
Former US securities partner Daniel Winterfeldt, who recently left for CMS Cameron McKenna (10 January 2010), also took considerable initiative during his three years at the firm as founder of LGBT network InterLaw, which provides support, advocacy and visibility for its 800 members.
The other firms to feature in the top 100 are Baker & MacKenzie, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Hogan Lovells, Irwin Mitchell and Pinsent Masons.
The number of law firms in the grouping increased on last year, when just four made the cut (13 January 2010).
There was a total of 378 entries this year, 26 of them in the legal sector. In addition 9,000 LGB individuals participated in a staff feedback survey intended to corroborate the employer responses. Participation is free.
The seven most gay-friendly law firms
| Position in the top 100 | Firm |
| 19 | Simmons and Simmons |
| 30 | Pinsent Masons |
| 42 | Hogan Lovells |
| 45 | Baker & MacKenzie |
| 50 | Herbert Smith |
| 72 | Eversheds |
| 93 | Irwin Mitchell |
Source: Stonewall
Readers' comments (10)
Anonymous | 12-Jan-2011 1:04 pm
I would be interested to see exactly how they gather the statistics for this list. It is good to see that Simmons is winning something amidst all their other woes.
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Anonymous | 12-Jan-2011 3:13 pm
I agree entirely with the above comment. On what criteria could a firm possibly be judged on whether they are gay-friendly or gay-unfriendly? I suspect that I speak on behalf of most solicitors when I say that the sexual orientation of the people I work with is of no concern to me whatsoever.
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al | 12-Jan-2011 6:50 pm
Swansong...
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Anonymous | 13-Jan-2011 3:00 am
I wish I could say the same to the last comment. Whilst I won't name names, early on in my career I was subjected to the most blatant, unwelcome and unpardonable discrimination on the basis of my sexual orientation from my supervising partner who made my life a living hell for 18 months. This was compounded by the fact that other partners within the department (all of whom were aware of what was happening) chose to do nothing. That partner is still working today. Not a lone story as I have since found out and sad in the current day as what I do in my private life has absolutely nothing to do with what happens in my professional life. Period.
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Anonymous | 13-Jan-2011 6:34 am
Whilst it's good to read that Simmons can achieve one milestone amongst its ever increasing issues of poor performance and lost talent. The fact is, as a client facing multi-million pound law suits, I would be only focussed on how Simmons could minimise or even eradicate my legal risk (among other risk classes). If a client was in s scenario of a breach of contract, dispute resolutions, £bn securities issues, I can assure you, this award is last on their list....past track performance is what counts.
Simmons always does this to smokescreen the fact that it is in a dire state at the moment. The firm should focus on driving billings, retain and recruit talent, publicise its involvement in large deals or, cases that were impossible to navigate through yet, its involvement and expertise helped clients. No doubt we'll probably see some CSR award being advertised by Simmons shortly...again, totally irrelevant, but their attempt to possibly distract from its real concerns.
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Sophia | 13-Jan-2011 7:22 am
It may be that for most solicitors the question of whether or not a colleague is gay is irrelevant, however significant prejudice exists which impacts hiring, promotion, and BD practices.
Whoever wears the "gay-friendly" law firm crown is less relevant than the impact that the LGBT network, InterLaw Diversity Forum, has had on supporting gay folks and on changing stubborn attitudes within the industry.
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CCF | 13-Jan-2011 10:15 am
It will be interesting to see how Simmons fares now that Winterfeldt has left, as he championed this and made the firm a leader in this field.
To the person who rather misguidedly said that clients don’t care about this kind of thing; that is not nearly always the case. In addition, and in any event, clients’ main priority is having the best lawyers for the job. In turn, for firms to be able to attract, retain and motivate the best lawyers, providing an environment in which everyone is treated equally is a crucial. Initiatives such as these awards are not a solution in themselves, but they do show the outside world that the firms which participate are making efforts to provide and equal environment for all their staff.
As to this being a smoke screen for some of Simmons’ woes, the survey is I believe published at the same time each year so the fact that this year it coincided with some other developments at the firm is not even really worthy of comment and certainly not any basis for the feeble attempts to bash the firm for issues totally unrelated to its diversity and inclusion successes.
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Anonymous | 13-Jan-2011 10:39 am
I wonder whether Simmons will still be the top law firm in the Index this time next year now that Daniel has left for Camerons.
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Anonymous | 13-Jan-2011 11:09 am
If gay friendly means that they have more gay clients that would be a welcome statistic for this firm
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Anonymous | 18-Jan-2011 9:29 pm
Daniel was the leader of this process. Now he has left, Simmons LGBT group won't be the same.
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