Jenner & Block Earns Perfect HRC Equality Index Rating for Seventh Year in a Row

Jenner & Block has earned a 100 percent perfect rating for the seventh year in a row, in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) 2012 “Corporate Equality Index” survey.  The survey, initiated in 2002, is a tool used to rate how American businesses are treating their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) employees.  In 2005, the Firm was the first Chicago-headquartered law firm – and only the fourth law firm nationwide – to receive the HRC’s 100 percent rating.  

The 2012 perfect score is perhaps even more significant as, this year, the survey reflected HRC’s initiative, embarked on three years ago, to raise the bar on its rating criteria so that a 100 percent score would, in its words, “reflect the ‘best in class’ practices of LGBT inclusion in the workplace.”  As a result, of 40 specific policies and practices examined in this year’s survey, 32 were new or more demanding than in previous years.  To achieve a perfect rating, a company was required to have fully-inclusive equal employment opportunity policies, equal employment benefits, demonstrated organizational LGBT competency and a firm-wide public commitment to the greater LGBT community.

Founded in 1980 and currently claiming more than 1 million members and supporters nationwide, the HRC is the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for LGBT Americans.