Older LGBT Americans Must Be the Role Models We Lacked

Growing up in Upstate New York in the 1960's there were no "out" LGBT role models.  Indeed, in those pre-Internet days, I thought I was the lone closeted gay kid in my high school.  As it turns out, I wasn't - some of us have connected years latter via Facebook - but the isolation and effort to hide my "secret" from family, friends and the world in general was oppressive.  Throw in my Catholic upbringing and it was down right soul killing.  Little did I know at the time that there were numerous successful closeted LGBT individuals that ranged from movie stars to leaders of industry.  Things are improving now, but depending on where one lives or the profession one has chosen, role models can remain few and far between.  Anthony Niedwiecki, dean of Golden Gate Law School and the husband of a blogger friend - his husband and I both attended a LGBT blogger summit in Washington, D.C. almost a decade ago - has a timely column in The Advocate that encourages older LGBT individuals to rise to the occasion of being role models for younger generations.  A key part is not just mentoring, but being visible - "out" if you will - in one's personal and professional life.  Here are highlights:

I was recently asked by a student, “How do you think being gay has impacted your career?” It was a great question that got me thinking about my journey from coming out in law school to becoming one of the only openly LGBTQ deans to ever lead a law school in the nation.

I came out at a time when there weren’t many visible LGBTQ leaders to look up to. Coming from a Catholic family in Michigan, I just didn’t have access to many people like me to look up to. That was also true as I entered law school. I purposely chose a school where I thought I could be more myself and finally come out. Luckily, I found friends and a few faculty members who helped me grow comfortable enough to take those first steps out of the closet. Finding the people who had the strength to be visible and proud helped me on my own journey.

But being gay in a predominantly straight male profession has its challenges. The first internship I had at a law firm was incredibly hostile to LGBTQ people. One of the partners eventually pulled me aside and told me, “You should probably start bringing a girlfriend to company parties — people are starting to talk.”  I left that firm.

I instantly became much more aware of the level of acceptance at my next internship or job. After graduation, I ended up at a wonderful law firm that had an openly gay partner. Having an LGBTQ person in leadership completely shifted the tone of the firm and made me completely comfortable to be myself. The partner even began mentoring me to help me succeed, which helped me see the value of being out in the professional world. If he could succeed, so could I.

The impact of visibility was driven home when I ran for local office. I decided to run for city commissioner after the mayor went on an antigay tirade. If I wanted to change the tone that he was setting, I needed to be the example of what LGBTQ leadership could look like. During my run to be city commissioner, I never shied away from being out. In fact, I went to California to marry my husband during the campaign. We won — and it changed the tone and trajectory that the bigoted former mayor tried to set.

All of these experiences are why I'm so proud to be incredibly outspoken and open as the dean of Golden Gate University. I remember the impact that having an openly LGBTQ person in my profession made on me and want to pass that along. But we still have so far to go. Many times, we run into the “rainbow ceiling,” where systemic biases impact the ability to move into a leadership role in our professional lives. A new report indicates we are routinely “frozen out of” top management jobs. This is even truer when it intersects with the biases against women and communities of color.

Things are slowly changing. We see groundbreaking members of our community like Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Laverne Cox, and Adam Rippon unabashedly being their authentic selves. The impact of visible leaders and high-profile figures is hopefully being felt by the current generation of LGBTQ youth coming into their own. I want to one day lose track because we’re so well represented. I want to see us on the Supreme Court or as president. And I truly believe those leaders of tomorrow are out there, drawing strength from those who have come before. Just like I did.

Kudos to Anthony - and his husband who has been an amazing activist for LGBT rights in his own right. 

A Bunch of Law Schools Are About to Close

There is a huge over supply of attorneys and with the huge down turn in the legal industry during the Great Recession, it's getting harder and harder for newly minted attorneys to find jobs to repay the massive debt they have incurred, often going to bottom tier law schools - why does Liberty University's law school immediately spring to mind? - and leaving them in severe financial straits.  Fortunately, younger folks seem to be waking up to the reality that law is perhaps not the best occupation.  The downside (depending on one's view) is that a number of law schools are facing closure.  A piece in Slate looks at the situation.  Here are some highlights:

In the world of law schools, every day is sort of like Black Friday.  OK, slight exaggeration. But with applications in free fall, schools are locked in a brutal competition to attract students who might theoretically one day be qualified to sit for a bar exam. And that, the New York Times reports today, has meant slashing tuition and dolling out discounts. At Northwestern University School of Law, one of the top ranked institutions in the country, “74 percent of first-year students this academic year received financial aid, compared with only 30 percent in 2009,” the paper notes. The University of Iowa, University of Arizona, and Penn State University have cut their prices. J.D.s are on sale!

It seems fairly obvious that some law schools are going to have to close in the not too distant future. Between the fall of 2010 and fall of 2013, enrollments dropped 24 percent. This year’s crop of new students should be even smaller. And while schools are doing everything in their power to pare back expenses and prop up their head counts, it seems like someone is going to fall victim to a collapsing demand. “I don’t get how the math adds up for the number of schools and the number of students,” Northwestern Dean Daniel Rodriguez, told the Times. That’s because it probably won’t.

This has been a subject of fearful discussion in the legal academy for a while. Already, Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley School of Law, a notorious diploma mill, has been forced to close its Ann Arbor campus due to sagging enrollment. But, as University of St. Thomas School of Law professor Jerry Organ writes, the history of another graduate school bust suggests bottom-tier schools might not be the only ones affected.

Many institutions opened law schools precisely because they were supposed to be cash cows and won’t be particularly psyched to suddenly start subsidizing them. Meanwhile, qualified applicants are now harder to find for schools with some semblance of standards, because the biggest application declines have occurred among students who scored in the middle-to-high range on the LSAT.

There are plenty of lousy lawyers out there and many of the younger ones - perhaps out of financial necessity - seem inclined to engage in less than ethical conduct.

British Columbia Lawyers Vote to Deny Accreditation to Christianist Law School

In a move that ought to be replicated in America, lawyers in British Columbia have voted to deny accreditation - which usually is a prerequisite for graduates to be able to sit for the bar exam - to a proposed law school that imposes a Christofascist statement of faith on students and faculty.  Here in Virginia, both Regent University and Liberty University impose statements of faith on faculty and students.  It goes without saying, one cannot engage in rigorous academics and legal analysis when everything must be viewed within the myopia of religious dogma and myths.  Yes, many students sign the statement of faith with a wink and a nod with no intention of truly following it, but it remains a cloud over one's head throughout enrollment.   The Vancouver Sun reports on the move to withdraw accreditation from a proposed law school at Trinity Western University.

Nearly 6,000 B.C. lawyers — about half the profession — have voted to have the provincial law society withdraw accreditation from a proposed law school at Trinity Western University.

In a historic provincewide poll conducted this month, 5,951 lawyers (about 75 per cent) voted to withdraw accreditation from the school, compared with 2,088 who wanted to maintain the society’s earlier approval of the new law faculty.

The Langley-based university’s spokesman, Guy Saffold, said it was disappointed with the vote.

“Trinity Western believes in diversity and the rights of all Canadians to their personal beliefs and values,” he said, noting gay and lesbian students attend and graduate from the institution.

The benchers originally endorsed the school April 11 but thousands of lawyers rose up in revolt and at a special general meeting June 10 demanded their governors reconsider.  At that passionate gathering, an overwhelming number of the lawyers — 3,210 to 968 — demanded the benchers reverse their decision.

They objected to the Evangelical institution’s practice of having staff, faculty and students sign a Community Covenant that among other tenets restricts sex to traditional marriage between a man and woman.

“The large return and clear result sends an important message about the core values of the legal profession that include upholding the legal rights of all persons. The clear message to TWU is this: if you wish approval from the legal profession in B.C. you will need to cease your discriminatory practices. The discipline or expulsion of students and staff for private sexual activity is unacceptable.”

Law societies in Ontario and Nova Scotia already have taken a stand against the proposed law school over its covenant, triggering litigation.

It is expected the Supreme Court of Canada will be the final arbiter of the dispute that brings under scrutiny the scope of religious freedom.

No one is attacking the school's religious freedom.  They are free to do whatever they want.  But that does not mean that others - in this case the legal profession - is required to endorse and/or approve of their batshitery.  If you want to be a legitimate university with degrees recognized across the profession, then be one and throw out the statement of faith requirement.  It is far past time the special rights and deference be given to self-anointed Christians.

The Tyranny of the Billable Hour - Lawyers' Nightmares

Newly minted attorneys in large firms quickly learn one thing: the only thing that really matters to the firm head honcho's is how many billable hours one racks up.  While you hear platitudes about firm's respecting attorneys' home lives and valuing families, etc., it is all really a lie.  I experienced it myself fresh out of law school and associates at big firms are still living the nightmare of horrific hours at work and little or no social life.  Indeed, many of the very successful attorneys that I have known - success being defined by the amount of money earned - typically have been through one or more divorces and have been absentee parents.  Despite what the law firms claim, you do not get to have it all and you must often choose between family and "success."  A piece in the New York Times looks at the continued dysfunction in the world of law firms.  Here are excerpts:

“THAT bill shall know no limits,” wrote one DLA Piper lawyer to another in 2010 in what the firm is now calling “unfortunate banter” between associates about work for a client. But what is truly unfortunate is the underlying billable-hour regime and the law-firm culture it has spawned. 

Lost in the furor surrounding one large firm’s current public relations headache are deeper problems that go to the heart of the prevailing big law-firm business model itself. Regrettably, as with previous episodes that have produced high-profile scandals, the present outcry will probably pass and the billable hour will endure. 

It shouldn’t. The billable-hour system is the way most lawyers in big firms charge clients, but it serves no one. Well, almost no one. It brings most equity partners in those firms great wealth. Law firm leaders call it a leveraged pyramid. Most associates call it a living hell.

In a typical large firm, associates earn far less than the client revenues they generate. For example, a client receives an invoice totaling the number of hours each lawyer spends on the client’s matters, multiplied by the lawyer’s hourly rate, say $400 for a junior associate. Most big firms require associates to bill at least 1,900 hours a year, according to a survey last year by NALP, the Association for Legal Career Professionals. 

At $400 an hour, a hypothetical 2,000-hour-a-year associate generates $800,000 a year for the firm. But the firm typically pays the salaried lawyer one-fourth of that amount or less.

For associates, the goal is simple: meet the required (or expected) minimum number of billable hours to qualify for annual bonuses and salary increases. Billing 2,000 hours a year isn’t easy. It typically takes at least 50 hours a week to bill an honest 40 hours to a client. Add commuting time, bathroom breaks, lunch, holidays, an annual vacation and a little socializing, and most associates find themselves working evenings and weekends to “make their hours.” Most firms increase financial rewards as an associate’s billables move beyond the stated threshold. 

For partners, billable hours are a key measure of associate and partner productivity. More is better. The resulting culture pushes everyone harder. Meanwhile, each partner strives to maximize individual client billings that he or she controls. Those billings in most cases determine a partner’s annual share of the firm’s profits. Their clients also become tickets to other firms. That makes partners reluctant to share too many important client responsibilities with their associates and fellow partners. 

For clients, the consequences of the billable-hour system can be absurd. Fatigue through overwork can produce negative returns — the critical document missed during a late-night marathon review; the error in the draft of a corporate filing that goes unnoticed.

There’s a way out of the mess. But it requires clients to press harder for alternative fee arrangements, courts to back away from policies that embed the billable hour, law firm leaders to stop rewarding excessive associate hours and senior partners to consider the deleterious consequences of their myopic focus on short-term profit-maximizing behavior. 

In fact, a cottage industry has now developed in auditing outside law firm invoices to clients. Even so, as the deceit associated with the billable hour continues undetected, equally insidious consequences of the entire system endure. The episodes of public embarrassment will remain infrequent, and the triggers producing them will be idiosyncratic. DLA Piper’s current notoriety began when a former client refused to pay his roughly $675,000 bill. The firm sued him last year, and its internal e-mails about the matter became subject to discovery. Before long, they landed on the front page of The New York Times. 

DLA Piper said that the comments of its lawyers were “an inexcusable effort at humor.” What’s really not funny is the toll that the flawed system is taking on a vital profession. 

Candidly, life in a big firm is a nightmare and I'd only wish it on my worse enemy.   Most of my clients now want flat fees if the work involved allows it.  I may use an hourly rate and estimated number of hours required to set the flat fee, but once set the temptation to pad hours so prevalent in big firms vanishes.  The result is that clients do not continually get ripped off. 

Leaders of Richmond's Largest Law Firms Back Thorne-Begland Judgeship

Having just received a humiliating rebuke - or that's how anyone rational would see it - in his lunatic U.S. Senate nomination bid, Bob Marshall now has the power players in the Richmond legal community pushing the City's Circuit Court judges to do what the General Assembly would not: appoint an openly gay man to the bench.   In the legal world, these are not just local league firms.  No, they are large international law firms with hundreds of attorneys with credentials of the type Marshall could only dream about.  One can only hope that this may be the beginning of large powerful Virginia based law firms and corporations sending a message to the Virginia General Assembly - and the Virginia GOP in particular - that the crazy religious based extremism needs to cease.  It's bad for business and is making Virginia less competitive in the world economy.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post: 

Leaders of Richmond’s five largest law firms are urging the city’s Circuit Court judges to do what the General Assembly would not: appoint an openly gay man to the bench.  The General Assembly in May blocked the appointment of Tracy Thorne-Begland, a veteran Richmond prosecutor, to a relatively low-level District Court judgeship. 

“He’s a bright guy, he’s fair-minded; people that deal with the commonwealth’s attorney’s office think he’s a real leader there,” said former Virginia attorney general Richard Cullen, one of five lawyers who sent a letter to circuit judges Tuesday on Thorne-Begland’s behalf. “I think it’s fair to say we want this to be based on the merits. And based on the merits, Tracy will be an outstanding judge. Nobody disagrees with that.”

The letter was very brief: “We understand that the Court is considering appointing Tracy Thorne-Begland to the District Court for the City of Richmond. We believe he would be an outstanding jurist and support his appointment.”

Along with Cullen, who is chairman of McGuireWoods, it was signed by James V. Meath, chairman of Williams Mullen and a former president of the Virginia Bar Association; Thurston R. Moore, chairman emeritus of Hunton & Williams; John S. West, managing partner of Troutman Sanders’s Richmond office; and Thomas M. Wolf of LeClairRyan, former governor Timothy M. Kaine’s onetime law partner.

Opposition to Thorne-Begland’s appointment was led by the Family Foundation of Virginia and Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William). 

University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said the letter could help. “Having the pillars of the legal establishment strongly urge the Richmond circuit judges to appoint [Thorne-Begland] because he is highly qualified is valuable,” he said via e-mail. Tobias added that what’s up in the air is whether the General Assembly would appoint Thorne-Begland permanently after having an opportunity to assess him during an interim term.

But Marshall, who ran in Tuesday’s primary for U.S. Senate but was defeated by George Allen, was not swayed.  “This is the Republican establishment that can’t take a message,” he said. “This is unbelievable arrogance. We went through this process, the House of Delegates said ‘no,’ we have the authority to do that. We found him wanting in judicial temperament. If they don’t like the outcome, they should run for delegate.”

Perhaps what these firms need to do is find a good candidate to challenge Marshall in 2013 and bankroll Marshall's opponent and get Marshall out of the General Assembly.  He's an embarrassment to Virginia not to mention common decency.   These forms also need to be more aggressive in sending a message to the larger Virginia GOP that religious extremism needs to end.

The Legal Industry's Growing Two Caste System

I have often told my children that I'd never pay even a penny towards their education costs if they were to go to law school. Why? Because in general law sucks as a career. To do well in larger firms one needs to sacrifice family and much of a private life because of the grueling hours. And then there's the constant back stabbing and fighting over how the firm pie is divided up. And on top of that, at least in many parts of the USA, being openly gay is a sure ticket to being shown the door - something I found out personally seven years ago. Now, the law firm plantation system is taking on a new modification. In addition to associates who will work like dogs to enrich the partners big firms are adding a "non-partner" track for attorneys. These lawyers will do largely the same work - and no doubt be billed out to clients at much the same rate as partner track associates - and add to the profits of the partners. The only positive (which will need to be borne out over time and proven to not just be a case of less pay for the same work) is that for less pay, these folks may actually be able to have a life and put in fewer hours. The New York Times looks at this growing form of legal serfdom. Here are highlights:
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The nation’s biggest law firms are creating a second tier of workers, stripping pay and prestige from one of the most coveted jobs in the business world. Make no mistake: These are full-fledged lawyers, not paralegals, and they do the same work traditional legal associates do. But they earn less than half the pay of their counterparts — usually around $60,000 — and they know from the outset they will never make partner.
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Besides making less, these associates work fewer hours and travel less than those on the grueling partner track, making these jobs more family-friendly. And this new system probably prevents jobs from going offshore.
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But as has been the case in other industries, a two-tier system threatens to breed resentments among workers in both tiers, given disparities in pay and workload expectations. And as these programs expand to more and more firms, they will eliminate many of the lucrative partner-track positions for which law students suffer so much debt.
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“For a long time the wind was at the back of these big law firms,” said William D. Henderson, a historian at Indiana University-Bloomington. “They could grow, expand and raise rates, and clients just went along with absorbing the high overhead and lack of innovation. But eventually clients started to resist, especially when the economy soured.”
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So now firms are copying some manufacturers — which have similarly inflexible pay because of union contracts — by creating a separate class of lower-paid workers. At law firms, these positions are generally called “career associates” or “permanent associates.” They pay about $50,000 to $65,000, according to Michael D. Bell, a managing principal at Fronterion, which advises law firms on outsourcing. These nonglamorous jobs are going to nonglamorous cities.
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“It’s our version of outsourcing,” said Ralph Baxter, Orrick’s chief executive. “Except we’re staying within the United States.” Similar centers have cropped up in other economically depressed locations. WilmerHale, a 12-office international firm, has “in-sourced” work to Dayton, Ohio.
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“There’s a big, low-cost attorney market there,” said Scott Green, WilmerHale’s executive director. “That means we can offer our services more efficiently, at lower prices.” What’s good for clients, of course, isn’t quite as good for those low-cost lawyers.
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Lower salaries make it even more difficult for newly minted lawyers to pay off their law school debt — like the $150,000 in loans that David Perry accumulated upon graduation from Northwestern University School of Law in 2009.
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Heather Boylan Clark, 34, was a seventh-year associate at Jones Day before applying for a career associate position after the birth of her second child. She makes 40 percent less than before, but says she still does “challenging work,” and, more important, has greater control of her schedule. “I’m not killing myself to be hitting specific numbers of billable hours in any given year,” said Ms. Boylan Clark, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. “Now I’m always home for bedtime.”
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My advice? Avoid law as a career. There are many other options where one can be happier and have more of a life than in big firm sweatshops.

Law School Recruitment Protections a Sham

Back in December, 2009, I did made inquiry to four of Virginia's top law schools in respect to how they square their recruitment non-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation allegedly imposed against law firms and corporations with the fact that most law firms in Virginia have no policies that protect attorneys and staff from being fired based upon their sexual orientation. My post concerning my inquiry can be found here. The law schools I consulted were the University of Virginia School of Law, the University of Richmond School of Law, the Washington and Lee School of Law, and the Marshall Wythe Scool of Law at William & Mary.

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Two and a half months latter, only one law school dean felt my inquiry merited a response. The responding law school? Not my Alma Mater, the University of Virginia School of Law that touts its policy in words but apparently not in action. No, the sole response came from the dean of the law school at William & Mary, a copy of which is set out above (click the image to enlarge it). As you can see, the William & Mary response is less than comforting for past graduates of the law school since only current students will apparently receive protection.

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The lesson to gays in the legal community? You are basically on your own and cannot expect any employment protections. The state laws afford gay attorneys no protections from being fired and the leading law schools turn a blind eye to homophobic law firms as long as the law firms - with a wink and a nod to the placement offices - pretend that they do not discriminate against LGBT individuals. The fact that most firms lack any non-discrimination policies that exclude discrimination based on sexual orientation means nothing. Indeed, law firms with histories of firing gay attorneys lare likewise apparently fully welcome at these law schools.

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It is a pathetic state of affairs, but it's telling as to what it is like to be LGBT in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Why Do Gays Use Homophobic Law Firms?

I guess sometimes you just have to wait for homophobes to reap what they sow. A case in point is an interesting e-mail I received from a reader who was incensed over the fact that an historical association with which he is connected and which received a large gift from one of his friends who died of AIDS has apparently been using a Hampton Roads area law firm that has a track record of homophobia for legal services. To make matters even more troubling, it seems that the association has LGBT board members who may or may not have no idea of who they are dealing with in terms of this law firm. Frankly, as one of the only area attorneys who is out socially and professionally, it baffles me that far too many members of the LGBT community continue to give their hard earned money to law firms that would not hire them because of their sexual orientation and whose members likely laugh uproariously at fag jokes, etc. As I have previously noted, the majority of Virginia law firms do NOT have policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Yet time and time again I hear of gays using anti-gay firms. I do not understand it. It's like a Jew using a Neo-Nazi's services. In any event, this writer has a blog that lets the homophobic law firm have it. Here are some highlights:
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A warning to all Gay and Lesbians (LGBT) who are members of the Steamship Historical Society of America – we have learned the SSHSA has retained Wolcott Rivers Gates for years. This is a Virginia law firm who does not adhere to a non-discrimination policy that bars employment based on sexual orientation . . . .
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This brings into question why would the SSHSA, based in Providence, RI, purposely hire an out of state law firm known for being aggressively opposed to a non-discrimination policy. Does the SSHSA, its officers, trustees agree with the law firms position regarding LGBT employees? Does the SSHSA maintain similar employment policies in Rhode Island regarding gay employees?
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Many of the most prominent experts and lecturers on steamship history are gay. Is the SSHSA so insensitive they would purposely hire a firm that fires gay lawyers?
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We have learned there are LGBT members serving on the board of SSHSA. Do they condone the SSHSA retaining a law firm in Virginia of homophobic policies. We checked out the attorneys at Wolcott Rivers Gates. The firms photos are on line. They are all white men and women. The firm has no minority attorneys and has fired openly gay lawyers in the past.
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Yes, I am well acquainted with the law firm. And based on my personal knowledge and from what has been related to me by friends that suffered at the hands of gay bashing and homophobic behavior by its attorneys in divorce cases, this firm is anything but gay friendly despite its efforts to suck in money from uninformed LGBT clients. Talk is cheap. Actions speak volumes.

Monday Morning Pondering

The boyfriend and I are back in Hampton and I'd be lying to say that I am happy to be back in gay-hostile Virginia where many "Godly Christians" - starting with our new Governor, Taliban Bob McDonnell - care more about the humane treatment of animals than they do about recognizing LGBT Virginians as fully human and deserving of equality under the civil laws. In terms of the house, all of the sheet rock removal is complete and non absorbent insulation has been installed. The lower cabinets in kitchen have been removed and the sheet rock behind them removed as well. For the next several weeks our guest bath will function as our "kitchen" with the exception that the over the range microwave is still functional in the downstairs kitchen. In addition to the large trash roll off container shown in the photo above, the front yard is also decorated currently with a port-a-potty for the construction workers.

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This week at the office will be crazy as I close transactions for clients, finalize estate planning documents drafted while I was out of town and catch up with God knows how many voicemail messages. Meanwhile, to make things even more welcoming in terms of being back, the weather is rainy and nasty to boot.

Ten Do's and Don't's of Coming Out in a Law Firm

I have written a number of times about the rampant homophobia that still exists within much of the legal profession within the USA. Indeed, I am still waiting for responses from three of the four top Virginia law schools I wrote on the issue of their (non)enforcement of their non-discrimination policies which in theory bar homophobic law firms from recruiting on their campuses (only William & Mary has responded to date). Thus, I was surprised to find an article by James Quarmby (pictured at right), apparently a gay attorney himself with a large UK based law firm, in the legal journal, The Lawyer. Unfortunately, Mr. Quarmby - while acknowledging homophobia exists and trying to put some humor into the issue - in my opinion vastly under estimates the danger of coming out at many law firms in the USA. Indeed, I suspect that it is a dangerous move even today in the majority of law firms in most parts of the country. It surely is in the great Norfolk, Virginia area. While the American Bar Association is belatedly viewing LGBT attorneys as a minority group within the profession, the Virginia State Bar continues to pretend that LGBT attorneys do not exist. Here are some highlights from the article:

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Homosexuals are the hidden minority. Don’t look round but the person sitting at the desk next to you may be one. Unlike other minorities we’re not immediately obvious (apart from a few flamboyant individuals I could mention). This means you won’t know unless you’re told.
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This poses a dilemma for any gay ­person in a law firm. Do you come out and risk the hatred, ridicule or contempt of your colleagues and clients, or do you keep it under your hat? The latter course is superficially attractive but once you start deceiving people it’s difficult to know when to stop. And when you finally do speak up, you’re exposed not only as a nancy boy (or girl) but a fraud.
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So, here are my 10 do’s and don’ts to coming out at work:

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1. Do, if possible, choose your firm ­carefully before joining. Some of the ­bigger firms have fancy equal ­opportunities and empowerment policies, normally a good indicator of the level of acceptance you can expect. Others - often the smaller regional firms - are still living in metaphorical caves with their animals. Expect them to have less enlightened ­attitudes.
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2. Don’t make any grand gestures or announcements. Hanging a banner over your desk emblazoned with the words, ‘Yes, I’m gay, get over it’, probably isn’t the best move. Lawyers are conservative ­creatures by nature and are easily shocked by… well… anything really.
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3. Do drop casual remarks into social ­conversations. These should leave no doubt which side you are batting for. “Oh, my boyfriend and I went to the theatre last night to see that play…” If said by a man, it leaves no room for misinterpretation.
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4. Don’t make a big deal out if it. The less fuss you make about your newly declared sexuality, the less others will think it ­worthy of comment.
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5. Do take your significant other to the firm’s Christmas party. You can be ­guaranteed that, within a few hours of arrival, the gossips will have done their work and that every last man, woman and child will know all the fabulous details. However, it’s probably best to avoid ­getting heroically drunk and snogging to the slow numbers on the dance floor. This may be a step too far.
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6. Don’t feel the need to conform to any of the stereotypes. I have never felt the need, for instance, to express a love for musical theatre. And girls, it’s really not necessary to drive to work in a Jeep.

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7. Do challenge homophobic behaviour when it arises. In my experience this is never normally overt and when it is, takes the form of carelessly inappropriate remarks or jokes. These need to be stamped on and crushed like a bug so that the offender is under no illusions that a repeat performance will be tolerated.
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8. Don’t look for or expect homophobia where it doesn’t exist. We’re lucky to be in a profession that is generally well-­educated, intelligent and tolerant. Most of your colleagues will want to be supportive if you come out. If they’re not then hit them over the head with a club. That last bit was a joke. Just.
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9. Do remember to keep your sense of humour and have some fun. It’s not all deadly serious. In short - loosen up, for heaven’s sake.
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10. Finally, for those who are ashamed or embarrassed about being ‘abnormal’, remember the words of the late Derek ­Jarman, who famously opined: “Heterosexuality isn’t normal, it’s just common.”

Law Firm Homophobia: Ex-Fried Frank Associate Sues Firm, Claiming Harassment, Phony Reviews

I have looked at the homophobia that still permeates much of the legal profession - particularly outside of truly major metropolitan areas - in prior posts. However, even some law firms in the largest cities may still have their prejudices. One potential example is Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York City which about to be sued by a former associate attorney, Julie Kamps, who plans to file a lawsuit this week in federal court in Manhattan. Kamps, previously filed a less detailed complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which in a separate proceeding, issued Kamps a notice of right to sue in November indicating that it appeared that discrimination had indeed occurred. In a prior post, I looked at the disconnect between the non-discrimination policies of top law schools and what law firms actually engage in as laid out in a letter to four Virginia law schools. To date, only the College of William & Mary School of Law has responded and the response was less than encouraging as I will discuss in separate post. Meanwhile, here are some highlights from the AmLaw Daily:
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A former associate plans to file a wide-ranging $50 million lawsuit against Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, accusing the firm of denying her a promotion to partner because she is a lesbian and of doing nothing to stop higher-ups from harassing her, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Am Law Daily.
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A firm spokeswoman did not immediately provide a comment in response to the suit. Kamps, a graduate of Harvard Law School, worked at Fried Frank from 1998 until January of this year, when the firm terminated her in the middle of an arbitration hearing.
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In the complaint, to be filed this week, Kamps claims that Janice Mac Avoy, a litigation partner, "knowingly made unwelcome sexual advances and sexual comments to Kamps, both alone and in the presence of others." Mac Avoy allegedly "told Kamps it was 'the biggest regret of her life' that she had not slept with Kamps 'when she had the chance,'" and discussed various sexual acts with Kamps, the complaint states. Kamps also alleges that Mac Avoy encouraged her to "wear women's clothes," because William McGuinness, chair of the firm's litigation department, believed Kamps's preference for men's shirts could "make clients uncomfortable."
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As we've previously reported, Fried Frank terminated Kamps in the middle of an arbitration session in January, during which Bettina Plevan, a well-known employment attorney at Proskauer Rose, represented Fried Frank. It is unclear why Kamps was fired at that time, and Kamps claims in her lawsuit that she has never received a negative performance evaluation or a solid reason for her dismissal.

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It will be interesting to see where the case goes. The fact that the EEOC issued a right to sue letter does seem to add credence to Kamps' claims.

Rainy Day in New York City

Well, the trip to the Guggenheim was a bust - a long, long line combined with wind and rain. We soon bagged that idea and ended up going to an amazing Titanic exhibition on 44th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. I am a Titanic buff and this was the best exhibit I've ever seen with lots of artifacts and even recreated rooms such as the Grand Staircase shown above. It was interesting because among the items on display was one of the ship's whistles which I had seen unloaded in Norfolk when the very first artifacts were retrieved. A friend had been counsel for RMS Titanic, Inc., and invited me down to the dock when the expedition vessel came in. I highly recommend the exhibition to those in town or coming to town.

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Breakfast with the boyfriend's young client and one of her friends was pleasant and it was interesting hearing them talk as the begin careers with mega firms. I do not envy the hours they will be putting in, but given what has been happening in the legal industry, they are lucky that the have jobs as some New York firms have slashed associate attorneys and staff personnel. Tonight we are headed to Hair and hopefully the rain will abate somewhat. Vendors selling umbrellas on street corners have done a brisk business since the wind has destroyed countless umbrellas, including one of ours.

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Any bloggers in New York can drop me a line and perhaps meet us for a drink or something. We will be in town through Monday.

Downturn Dims Prospects Even at Top Law Schools

Personally, if I had it to do over again, I'd never go to law school - like so much in my previous life, I did it because it was "expected." Based on some surveys of attorneys I am not the only one to regret the choice: as high as 70% of the profession weals the same way. In fact, speaking with a therapist from a Virginia State Bar sponsored program, he said that attorneys have high depression and substance abuse rates and among the highest suicide rates. The profession is high pressure and nowadays extremely cut throat where only receipts and the bottom line matter. Integrity and competence mean less than being a bullshitting "rainmaker." Now, with the economy in a downward spiral, lay offs in the legal profession have been massive - over 5,000 attorneys have been laid off by large firms and countless staff and paralegals have been likewise let go. Thus, getting a job is no longer a sure thing - especially if one is gay and out in cities other than major cities. The job market crash is now trickling down to graduating law students even from top schools. It is not a pretty picture as the New York Times is reporting:

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This fall, law students are competing for half as many openings at big firms as they were last year in what is shaping up to be the most wrenching job search season in over 50 years.

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For students now, the promise of the big law firm career — and its paychecks — is slipping through their fingers, forcing them to look at lesser firms in smaller markets as well as opportunities in government or with public interest groups, law school faculty and students say.

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The frenzy has even pushed the nation’s top firms, a tradition-bound coterie, into discussing how to reform the recruitment process with an earnestness that would have been unthinkable just years ago. Even if the economy is beginning to pick up, the legal profession has been pummeled over the last year, with some firms closing and survivors often asking associates to take leaves of absence.

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How bad is it? Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the juggernaut of New York, has slashed its hiring by more than half. For the first time in 136 years, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, a respected Philadelphia firm, has canceled its recruiting entirely. Global firms like DLA Piper and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe have postponed recruiting for several months to see if the market improves. At Yale, students accustomed to being wooed by Big Law’s glittering names — like Baker & McKenzie; Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, & McCloy; and White & Case — were stunned when those firms canceled interviews in New Haven this month.

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New York University, Georgetown, Northwestern and other top universities confirm that interviews are down by a third to a half compared with a year ago, while lower-ranked schools are suffering more.

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The timing is worst for the class of 2011, the second-years now looking to get into firms, because of a unique logjam created last year. After the September financial crisis, firms chose to defer their new hires at the price of steeply cutting recruiting this year. . . . When Julia Figurelli, a second-year student at the University of Pennsylvania, decided to enter law school a year ago, she expected to find a lucrative law firm job in three years . . .“Had I seen where the market was going, I would’ve gone to a lower-ranked but less expensive public school,” she said. “I’m questioning whether law school was the right choice at all.”

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I feel sorry for students burdened with debt and unable to find jobs. On the other hand, with luck they may find careers in other areas and industries and thereby avoid joining those of us who wish we had never gone into law in the first place.

LGBT Attorneys Talk of Experiences

The fact that LGBT attorneys exist is slowly coming to be recognized in some quarters, including the American Bar Association which has now created a Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Sadly, in Virginia, the Virginia State Bar acts as if LGBT attorneys do not exist and certainly are not something to be discussed. Similarly, even though the Virginia Canons of Judicial Conduct requires judges to be unbiased based on sexual orientation or else recuse themselves from a case involving LGBT litigants, virtually NOTHING is done to enforce these requirements and LGBT litigants are crucified for their sexual orientation regularly. Indeed, of five gays I know personally currently going through divorces, only one had a judge that did not take the divorcing husband's sexual orientation into consideration and use it as a reason to treat him with extreme harshness.

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The Windy City Times has a story that looks at the experiences of some LGBT attorneys who - like myself- in some instances found themselves unwelcome because of their sexual orientation and their unwillingness to live in the closet. The irony, of course, is that most top law schools have anti-discrimination policies that interviewing law firms must sign whereby they swear that they will not discriminate against hiring and promoting LGBT attorneys. In Virginia, law firms sign these statements and then go right ahead and discriminate - one of the reasons I have told LGBT law students to seek careers outside of Virginia. Here are some story highlights:

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Lawyers talked about their experiences in school and work in "The Gay Bar: LGBT Attorneys in the Profession," a forum held July 31 at the Hotel Intercontinental, 505 N. Michigan, as part of the American Bar Association's annual meeting. The attorneys spoke as the ABA's Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, chaired by San Francisco attorney Jeffrey G. Gibson, presided over the event and listened intently to the experiences.

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Orr talked about working with an investment bank in Virginia—a place where he did not feel welcome. "They started off each day with a prayer," he said. When he eventually ended up with the Washington, D.C., office of Baker & McKenzie, he said, " [ the firm ] didn't know what they were getting," as the audience laughed. Orr indicated that he made it quite clear from the start that he was gay. He admitted that the firm has its challenges: "In order to have a breakthrough ... firms need to understand what diversity means."

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Brent Adams, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, talked about attending the New York School University of Law as well as working at the Chicago law firm Katten Muchin Roseman ( then known as Katten Muchin Zavis ). Adams said that he was very out in law school and at work, serving as chair of the Bisexual Gay & Lesbian Law Students Association—commonly referred to as "Big Lisa." He received only one callback when he applied with ( mostly ) Chicago firms—from Katten—although he had no evidence that homophobia was involved in the lack of positive responses. When he was at Katten, a hiring partner asked me where he was from, and Adams responded, "Oklahoma." He laughed and said, "Well you know they only raise two things in Oklahoma." ( For those who don't know, the answer to that saying is "steers and queers." ) Adams informed his own mentor about what happened, and the partner visited him the next day "to see how he was doing."

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"When I came out to the lesbian and gay law students as transgender, I was not met with the welcome atmosphere that I had anticipated," Levasseur continued. "One student asked me invasive and inappropriate questions about my genitals. Another said, 'I just don't get it.' ... I quickly realized that the community that had once been my support no longer included me. I didn't know where to turn."
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A particular low point occurred when "during my first year, as I walked from the parking lot towards the law school building, an SUV sped up towards me as if to hit me," he said. "I jumped out of the way just in time and turned to see three of my classmates, future attorneys, in the car, laughing. At the time, I was not immune to threats on my life based on my gender expression. I just didn't expect it at my law school."

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The above quotes give you a sense of how far the legal profession has to go in actually embracing diversity. States like Virginia - and anti-gay law firms - are losing many talented and innovate people because they continue to put more store in religious based discrimination rather than the Constitution's promise of equality. Sadly, medicine and accounting seem even more bigoted that the legal community.

Major Law Firms Are Shrinking

One of the interesting aspects of the current recession is the blood bath occurring at many major law firms - enterprises once viewed as largely recession proof. Of course, as large numbers of lawyers find themselves suddenly unemployed, they either find positions at smaller firms or exit the legal industry. That's not to say the malaise of the economic times aren't likewise trickling down towards smaller firms as well. One local divorce attorney said that even in that realm of practice business has slowed as couples are staying together - not necessarily happily - so as to not have to sell homes in a stagnant market. Foreclosure and bankruptcy firms are the only ones that seem to be prospering. The New York Times has a piece today that looks at the turmoil at a firm that has long been a bastion of power and influence in New York:

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In his two years as chairman of White & Case, the venerable Wall Street law firm, Mr. Verrier had already laid off 70 young lawyers and shuttered offices in Bangkok, Dresden and Milan. He had watched top partners flee to competitors and suffered a depressive 2008 holiday party. . .

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Now Mr. Verrier, who had worked exclusively at the century-old firm since leaving Harvard Law School in 1982, sat in his office high above 44th Street and Avenue of the Americas, considering the e-mail message he was about to send. It announced that 200 more lawyers would lose their jobs, nearly 1 in 10 at the firm over all — and not just young associates with everything in front of them, but some million-dollar-a-year ones like himself, the ones with twin mortgages, kids in private school and no Plan B.

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“People are shellshocked,” said one top partner at the firm who, like many of its current and former lawyers, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “If they survived the first two rounds, they’re happy to have a job, but are still very nervous. And if their phones don’t ring, if their work doesn’t come back with a vengeance, they fear they aren’t long for this world.”

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A few top firms, like Thatcher, Proffitt & Wood, established before the Civil War broke out, have already gone under in the flood; the carnage of layoffs has touched even sterling names like Proskauer Rose, Dewey & LeBoeuf and Clifford Chance.

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In the first quarter of 2009, demand for legal services in New York decreased by nearly 10 percent over 2008, according to the Hildebrandt International Peer Monitor Index. At least 10,000 employees at major firms across the country have lost their jobs so far this year, according to the macabre but wildly popular “Layoff Tracker” run by another blog, lawshucks.com.

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While the legal industry is hardly battling the existential threat that is facing, say, the newspaper trade, Big Law — especially in competitive New York — is facing a potential paradigm shift as fundamental as the one that has hit investment banks and the auto industry. Big, as a business model (let alone as an expression of the national mood), seems bound for obsolescence.

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Jerry Kowalski, a legal consultant who tracks the New York market, said that “the mood at White & Case — and at probably 15 or 20 more firms in New York — is kind of like sitting at a deathbed and watching a close relative wither away. It’s like you’re right there in the I.C.U. with the patient and you know that the condition is terminal.”

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“For the first time in their lives, people feel sort of useless. All of a sudden, you can go to lunch for two and a half hours and really not be missed. It’s a blow to the ego. You’re talking about people who have never really failed.” At White & Case, the tensions have become so fierce that some people now fear staying home even if they are sick. Market forces have replaced “the social contract,” a top partner there said: camaraderie is “not terribly strong,” because “people are very scared.”

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As a profession, the law is harsh and brutal - one therapist I spoke with recently affiliated with the Virginia Bar noted that attorneys have among the highest suicide rate of any profession. After 32 years in the profession, I understand why. My advise to would be lawyers? Think twice about the law as a career. And for those who are already in the industry - find a way to get out, if possible.