Akin Gump Earns Fifth-Straight Perfect Score on HRC's Corporate Equality Index

(Washington, D.C.) –Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, for the fifth year in a row, has earned the top rating of 100 percent on the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), an annual survey administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC). The Index measures an employer’s commitment to policies, practices and protections pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees.

Each year, HRC invites the largest and most successful public and private companies in the United States to participate in the rating process. The 2012 Index rated a total of 636 employers.

The 2012 CEI employed five principal criteria to arrive at the 100 percent rating: equal employment opportunity policy, employment benefits, organizational LGBT competency, public commitment and responsible citizenship. By ensuring equality in each of the criteria, Akin Gump joined the ranks of 190 major U.S. businesses that received the 100 percent rating for their treatment of LGBT employees and consumers.

“Akin Gump stresses its commitment to equality in the workplace at every level and every office of the firm,” said R. Bruce McLean, Akin Gump’s chairman. “We are honored that our efforts have been recognized for five consecutive years in the Corporate Equality Index.”

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. For more information on the 2012 Corporate Equality Index, or to download a free copy of the report, visit www.hrc.org/cei.

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a leading international law firm, numbers more than 800 lawyers and advisors in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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