Minnesota Lawyer Blog

In August I mentioned how Dorsey & Whitney was rated a good place for women to work.

Turns out Dorsey is gay-friendly, too.

The Minneapolis law firm scored a perfect 100 on the Corporate Equality Index, a report card on GLBT inclusiveness released last month from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The survey rates the nation's leading businesses and AMLAW 200 firms on a variety of criteria, such as diversity training and domestic partner benefits.

Faegre & Benson also received a perfect score. Another local firm on the list was Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis, which scored a slightly lower 93 after losing points in the "has employer-supported employee resource group or firm-wide diversity council" category.

Here's how other Minnesota businesses scored:

3M Maplewood — 85
Alliant Techsystems Edina — 65
Allianz Life Insurance Golden Valley — 100
Ameriprise Financial Minneapolis — 100
Best Buy Richfield — 100
Cargill Wayzata — 100
Carlson Minnetonka — 100
General Mills Golden Valley — 100
Imation Oakdale — 93
Land O’Lakes Arden Hills — 53
Medtronic Fridley — 85
Northwest Airlines Eagan — 85
Supervalu Eden Prairie — 100
Target Minneapolis — 80
Thomson Eagan — 95
Travelers St. Paul — 50
U.S. Bancorp Minneapolis — 100
Xcel Energy Minneapolis — 60

A .pdf of the complete 2008 Corporate Equality Index is available here.

Dorsey & Whitney was the only law firm led by a women — managing partner Marianne D. Short — to rank in both the Am Law 100 and Top Law Firms for Women this year.

Bruce MacEwen over at Adam Smith, Esq. used this opportunity to chat with Short about law firm initiatives such as work/life balance, mentoring and flextime that help create a welcoming environment for many women.

A summary of the interview is available here.

Among other anecdotes, Short has these numbers to substantiate Dorsey’s strength among the fairer persuasion:

• In 2002, 28 percent of 5th- through 7th-year associates were women. But this year, a full 50 percent of 5th- through 7th-year associates are women.