Nixon Peabody law firm earns top marks for LGBT equality

PROVIDENCE – Nixon Peabody LLP, the international law firm with offices in Providence, has received a perfect score for corporate equality on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index, the firm said Friday.
Nixon Peabody received a 100 percent rating (for its fifth consecutive year) along with 338 law firms and businesses nationwide, ranked from March to September 2010.
The Corporate Equality Index measures companies based on their workplace policies for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees. A 100 percent score means the company provides diversity training, a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, a diversity committee that includes an LGBT group, and inclusive health insurance, bereavement and family leave to employees with same-sex partners.
Nixon says it was one of the first companies nationwide to extend health and welfare coverage to domestic partners and offers employees gender-neutral, four-week paid parenting leave.
“Recruiting and retaining diverse attorneys and staff is important,” said Kendal H. Tyre, partner and co-chair on the firm’s diversity action committee. “We are even more committed to providing opportunities for their professional development and advancement.”
Nixon’s diversity action committee is made up of attorneys and senior managers that work to maintain a sense of inclusiveness through policies, recruitment and promotion of personnel and community-giving programs.