It’s Gotten Better to Be LGBTQ in Big Law, but Struggles Remain

Anne Tompkins thought her sexual orientation would cut her off from certain job opportunities when she started her legal career in the early 1990s.

“People would say, ‘Too bad you’re gay because you would make a great U.S. attorney, but that would never happen,’” Tompkins told Bloomberg Law.

In 2010, she became the second openly gay U.S. Attorney when President Barack Obama appointed her to serve in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It seems quaint now,” said Tompkins, who has since become a partner at Cadwalader. “We’ve come so far so fast.”

The Supreme Court ruled in a landmark June decision that ...