Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP has once again earned a 100 percent rating in The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI). Since 2002, the CEI has surveyed large U.S. businesses to benchmark benefits and policies affecting LGBT employees.

The 2011 survey rated law firms and other businesses on a scale of 0 to 100 percent based on several factors, including whether they have a written non-discrimination policy and training covering sexual orientation and gender identity; support same-sex partners of employees with health insurance, bereavement and family leave policies; contribute to community organizations; and decline to engage in any activities that would undermine the goal of equal rights for LGBT people.

Davis Polk has implemented a variety of LGBT-specific initiatives to promote diversity and awareness, including the creation of an affinity group for LGBT employees designed to enhance networking and mentoring opportunities. The group’s recent events have included an address by The Honorable Deborah A. Batts, S.D.N.Y., the only openly LGBT member of the federal bench, and a presentation on marriage for same-sex couples by a senior attorney with the ACLU.

The firm also provides pro bono legal assistance to the LGBT community. Through the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, approximately 60 of the firm’s corporate and litigation lawyers have assisted more than 70 transgender individuals in petitioning the court to change their names to those more reflective of their gender identity and gender expression.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality.