Lawyers and other legal professionals committed to the issue of workplace diversity came together at the nightspot Sidetrack July 29 to celebrate the LGBT-related accomplishments of some of the state's biggest law firms in the area.
Lawyers for Diversity, as the group is known, held its sixth annual summer gathering to underscore the importance of the laws that affect the LGBT community "around the country and around the world," said Ed Mullen, one of the event's attendees. William Choslovsky, another attendee, told Windy City Times that marking diversity should be "part and parcel of what we do." Choslovsky, the co-chair of the law firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg's diversity committee, said the issue of diversity "strikes me as important because we care about the safety of anyone who walks through our door" and, as someone who is straight, he looks forward to the day when "none of have to care about sexual orientation," but until then he and others like him, he promised, will continue working toward LGBT equality.
At the event, Equality Illinois announced the results of its recent law firm diversity survey. The firms Jennifer & Block; McDermott, Will & Emery; and Perkins Coie are the top three firms that are, according to Equality Illinois, "setting the bar" in the area of workplace diversity. Rounding out the top 10 are the firms Bryan Cave; Chapman and Cutler; DLA Piper; Greenberg Traurig; Kirkland & Ellis; Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg; and Sidley Austin.
Michael McRaith, the state's openly gay insurance commissioner, was the event's keynote speaker. McRaith thanked those in attendance and said that his position as insurance commissioner is directly related to the political power exercised by the state's LGBT electorate and asked for the audience's continued support.
Lawyers for Diversity raises money for AIDS Legal Council of Chicago; the Equality Illinois Education Project; the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago Foundation; and Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.