LGBTQ+ Network

Sullivan & Cromwell has a long tradition of supporting its LGBTQ+ lawyers and non-legal personnel and of serving the LGBTQ+ community through pro bono legal representations and other contributions to LGBTQ+ causes (see LGBTQ+ Pro Bono Activities below). The Firm is proud of, and values, this ongoing commitment to promoting equality and rewarding merit without regard to sexual orientation or gender identification.

The LGBTQ+ Network was organized in order to further the Firm's commitment to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, provide a nurturing social and professional community for LGBTQ+ individuals within the Firm and enhance the inclusive environment of the Firm overall.

Among other things, the LGBTQ+ Network:

• facilitates S&C's involvement in LGBTQ+ pro bono work and its support of LGBTQ+ organizations;
   
• promotes recruitment of LGBTQ+ personnel; and
   
• organizes professional, social, and educational events.

• ACLU and NYCLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project and AIDS Project
   
• Human Rights Campaign
   
• Immigration Equality
   
• Lambda Legal
   
• National LGBT Bar Association
   
• SAGE (Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders)
   
• Stonewall
   
• The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund

• Mitchell S. Eitel (Corporate)
   
• David B. Hariton (Tax)
   
• David B. Rockwell (Corporate)
   
• Bradley P. Smith (Litigation)
   
• Donald J. Toumey (Corporate)
   
• Davis J. Wang (Tax)
   
• Frederick Wertheim (Corporate)

• joined with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to challenge an Arkansas statute, Act 1, which prohibited unmarried cohabiting couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. As a result, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down Act 1 as an unconstitutional violation of fundamental privacy rights under the Arkansas Constitution, allowing same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex couples to adopt in Arkansas.
   
• assisted the ACLU of North Carolina to challenge the state's ban on two-parent adoption, which effectively bars same-sex couples from joint adoption. S&C has also represented gay and lesbian couples seeking to foster and/or adopt in Arizona and Nebraska.
   
• partnered with Immigration Equality to represent applicants from nations around the world seeking asylum on the basis of sexual orientation. One of our lawyers is an active member of Immigration Equality's Board of Directors.
   
• participated in the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund's (TLDEF) name-change clinic, which serves low-income members of the transgender community in New York seeking to change their legal names to conform to their gender identities. Since October 2007, S&C has assisted more than 350 transgender individuals through this project.
   
• assisted Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders (SAGE), an organization dedicated to serving and advocating for older LGBT individuals, with the purchase and funding of the nation's first senior center devoted specifically to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
   
• volunteered at the bi-weekly legal clinic at New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Center for Special Studies and its Gay Men's Health Crisis satellite location to provide estate planning services to impoverished people with AIDS and HIV. Since 1989, lawyers at the Firm have dedicated more than 15,000 hours to this project.