Shook Earns Top Rating on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index

Shook, Hardy & Bacon has earned 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index, a top rating securing the firm a place on HRC’s list of the “Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.”

Shook Chair John Murphy welcomed the news and said, “To us, a diverse workplace is not an option—it’s the way we do business. We appreciate how HRC and other organizations have raised the bar for the legal and business communities to challenge stereotypes and give everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, opportunities for success. Inclusion makes us better as a firm, and we are honored by HRC’s recognition. We are committed to making everyone feel valued.”

Shook is one of 97 U.S. law firms to achieve a 100 percent rating. A total of 130 law firms were surveyed, all but four of which are ranked among The American Lawyer’s 200 highest-grossing law firms.

The HRC Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index examines various industries’ workplace protections and benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees across the nation. The current survey rates law firms and other companies on a scale from 0 percent to 100 percent using criteria that include whether the businesses have written non-discrimination policies and training that covers sexual orientation and gender identity.

HRC is the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization in the United States. It “envisions an America where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.”