The law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP (MMM) on April 10 announced the formation of a new LGBTQ business practice group that will provide culturally aware legal services to LGBTQ and Fortune 500 companies. MMM is the first law firm in the South to open an LGBTQ business practice.
The firm has a long track record of serving pro bono in the LGBTQ community. More than 50 law firms are participating in Atlanta Legal Aid’s Gender Affirming Name Change Project, a free name change legal service for low-income transgender, non-gender and non-binary individuals. The firm achieved a perfect 100 in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, an annual assessment of LGBTQ equality in the workplace, and received Mansfield 5.0 Plus certification status, an objective measure of the firm’s commitment to diversity, including LGBTQ attorneys.
In launching this new practice, the firm will leverage the strength of its full-service commercial law practice with its attorneys’ deep understanding of the LGBTQ community. Because of their strength in numbers, MMM offices in Washington DC and Atlanta hope to serve some of the country’s largest LGBTQ populations.
The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) certified its 2,000th LGBTQ business in March.
“LGBTQ-owned businesses contribute nearly $2 trillion to the U.S. economy and have created tens of thousands of jobs nationwide,” said Chance Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of NGLCC, in a press release. “As the number … continues to grow, so will our positive impact on the nation.”
MMM’s LGBTQ business practice attorneys advise LGBTQ-owned and operated businesses, business owners, investors, brokers, buyers, sellers and lenders on legal issues unique to the community, from real estate and finance to mergers and acquisitions and litigation. The group will also help corporate clients achieve their diversity goals by providing advice on issues related to supplier diversity initiatives.
“The goal of this new practice is to ensure that LGBTQ clients have ample opportunities to find the structural support and develop the professional relationships needed to thrive in the business community,” said Douglas D. Selph, Co -Chairman of the practice. “The company’s experience and long-standing commitment to equity and inclusion create an ideal platform to help LGBTQ companies build strategic partnerships with other culturally aligned companies.”
“It’s the right thing for our company to do. It’s no secret that there is increasing hostility towards the LGBTQ community across the South and other parts of the country,” Selph added. “We want to continue to support that [LGBTQ] community as a law firm and in business by recognizing and supporting LGBTQ-led businesses.”
Selph, a real estate and finance partner and past president of the Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia, will co-manage the group with commercial real estate associate Charles E. Hicks. Hicks is an ambassador for the OUT Georgia Business Alliance and is actively involved in the LGBTQ community.
“Our vision is to become the law firm of choice for LGBTQ entrepreneurs in the South and those who serve those entrepreneurs and businesses to create an ecosystem of excellence,” Hicks told Georgia Voice. “By creating the LGBTQ Business Practice Group, Morris, Manning & Martin hope we will make it easy for LGBTQ business professionals to identify with us as a friendly and socially conscious place to do business, and we will lower the barrier that could exist for people in terms of knowing where to go.”
Hick’s work in support and advocacy of the LGBTQ community includes campaigning for UGA’s Stonewall Equality Scholarship Fund for LGBTQ law students in 2019, the first of its kind at Georgia law schools.
“We are very pleased to establish a formal practice to serve this traditionally underrepresented but rapidly growing minority industry,” Hicks said. “Our subject matter expertise combined with our value-based service model makes Morris, Manning & Martin the ideal partner for LGBTQ entrepreneurs and community allies.”
“OUT Georgia is incredibly proud that Morris, Manning & Martin is making such a bold, innovative investment in the growing LGBTQ+ business community,” said Chris Lugo, executive director of the OUT Georgia Business Alliance. “Aligning the company’s values, expertise and commitment to equity will have a significant impact on LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, and we are honored to partner with the company in this effort.”
The practice is supported by an advisory board made up of well-known law firm partners who offer LGBTQ companies additional advisory services in their respective fields of activity. Council members include Matthew J. Sours, Chair of Real Estate Development and Finance, Catherine Morgen, Partner in Hospitality, Daniel L. Huynh, Partner in Intellectual Property and Chief Diversity, Scott L. Allen, Private Equity Partner, Corporate Partner Larkin B. Ellzey and litigant Jessica A Rodríguez.
