Equality Illinois kicked off the release of its Raising the Bar 2014 Report Aug. 13 with a talk by Diane Pamela Wood, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
Wood, who was speaking about the benefit of diversity in the legal workplace, was speaking to an LGBT organization for the first time.
"The courts benefit from diversity," Wood said. "Every person's experience is unique and it's our duty to serve everybody. … If you have a diverse legal profession, you learn from the experiences of the people around you and from your clients."
She also spoke of the importance of judges keeping attuned to what is going on within their communities.
"At the seventh circuit we of course receive cases of different kinds. You write opinions and hope they're correct. I can assure you that the right way to approach that is not live in an echo chamber…I need different viewpoints. I talk to colleagues. I talk to my law clerks I try to read. We need diversity to avoid that echo chamber phenomenon," Wood said.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear cases related to marriage equality from Indiana and Wisconsin on Aug. 26.
The Raising the Bar 2014 Report discusses common characteristics of the high-scoring Illinois law firms recognized in the report. Forty-one such firms are named.
"As we make progress towards full LGBT equality in the law and in the court of public opinion, the state's lawyers have led the way through inclusiveness in their workplaces, community outreach, and public advocacy," said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois, in a statement.
Among the findings in the report were that 100 percent of the responding firms have an equal employment opportunity policy or non-discrimination policy that expressly included sexual orientation, as well as gender identity and gender expression, in place. Additionally, 53 percent of the firms have gender transition guidelines, while 21 percents of the firms have a policy requiring vendors and contractors to have non-discrimination policies recognizing sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression, as well.
Cherkasov added, "Every law firm in the stateindeed, every business in the statecan learn from these pro-active policies that can help these companies compete in the marketplace [and] recruit and retain top talent."