News | Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Womble Bond Dickinson was well-represented at the 2021 Lavender Law Conference & Career Fair, presented by the LGBT Bar. Attorneys Tara Cho, John Forcier, and Mason Freeman all attended the virtual event, while Columbia, S.C. Office Managing Partner Kevin Hall was a speaker.
Hall took part in a panel discussion titled “Advocacy with a Drawl, Y’all: A Case Study in Southern “No Promo Homo” Laws”. Hall served as lead counsel in a federal lawsuit that last year that resulted in the US District Court declaring South Carolina’s “No Promo Homo” law unconstitutional. The law prevented educators from discussing same-sex relationships, in the context of health education in South Carolina’s K-12 public schools.
He was joined in the discussion by Eli Bundy, a 16-year-old South Carolina high school student and LGBTQ+ rights advocate who was one of the plaintiffs in the aforementioned case. Other panelists included Caitlin Ryan (Family Acceptance Project), Zaylore Stout (Zaylore Stout & Associates, LLC) and Nicholas Tiger (Capital One).
Cho and Hall lead WBD Pride, the firm’s LGBTQ+ affinity and ally group.
The Lavender Law® Conference & Career Fair is the largest LGBTQ+ legal conference in the country with approximately 1700 attendees attending annually. This year’s event took place July 28-30.
