Human Rights Campaign Honors Fulbright with Corporate Equality Award
Mark Robertson
Partner
New York
Before a ballroom filled with 800 people—including Fulbright clients like Shell and BP—The Human Rights Campaign honored Fulbright with its Corporate Equality Award on May 19 for Fulbright's "outstanding leadership and service to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."
For the previous three years, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation awarded Fulbright a 100 percent rating in its Corporate Equality Index. The CEI report is released each fall, providing an analysis and rating of large, national employers and their policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
Partner Mark Robertson, who accepted the award on behalf of Fulbright, described equality as "a part of the DNA of Fulbright" even before the firm adopted formal policies related to LGBT lawyers and staff. He invoked the experience of John Crooker, Sr., in prosecuting white soldiers after they mistreated people of color in Houston during World War I, the fight of the founders of the firm against the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and 1930s, and the appointment of Leon Jaworski to prosecute Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett for his attempt to prevent the enrollment of James Meredith into the University of Mississippi as examples of Fulbright's belief in equality.
Partner Mark Robertson,
Sr. Associate Travis Torrence
and Sr. Associate Rhonda Sigman
Senior associates Rhonda Sigman and Travis Torrence, both of whom have spent much of their tenure at the firm cultivating relationships with leaders and other corporate supporters of HRC, also attended the event on Fulbright's behalf, along with representatives from several of Fulbright's clients.
Fulbright demonstrates its ongoing commitment to fully include the LGBT community in society by its monetary support of organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and the Lambda Legal Defense Fund and by its pro bono support of organizations like the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund.
To learn more about Fulbright's commitment to LGBT, visit www.fulbright.com/lgbt.
