Burg, Jerry

Thome, Joni M.

English

bepress Legal Repository

Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 HCBA Report

Mitchell Hamline School of Law

William Mitchell Law ReviewVolume 41 | Issue 1 Article 92015Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995HCBA ReportJerry BurgJoni M. ThomeFollow this and additional works at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlrPart of the Law and Gender Commons, Legal Profession Commons, and the Sexuality and theLaw CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviewsand Journals at Mitchell Hamline Open Access. It has been accepted forinclusion in William Mitchell Law Review by an authorized administratorof Mitchell Hamline Open Access. For more information, please contactsean.felhofer@mitchellhamline.edu.© Mitchell Hamline School of LawRecommended CitationBurg, Jerry and Thome, Joni M. (2015) "Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 HCBA Report," William Mitchell LawReview: Vol. 41: Iss. 1, Article 9.Available at: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol41/iss1/9  239 REFLECTIONS ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1995 HCBA REPORT Jerry Burg† Re-reading the 1995 study brought back a deluge of memories and feelings—working on this project was my first opportunity to find any serious support amongst my peers. It was great to read the names of the coauthors and recall how much it meant to me to have their support back then—they helped me get through my own professional coming out more than some of them even know. By the end of 1995, I had been fired by the firm where I was working, which led to an eighteen-month-long sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit against that firm. There I was, barely out of the closet, a divorced father of two little girls, talking on the news about getting fired for being gay (allegedly!). My worst fears had come true. I would not have had the guts to bring that suit, I would not have gotten through it, and I would not have landed on my feet without the support of many of the coauthors. What an amazing group of people! The report was very hard to revisit. I do not often recall the difficult events that occurred in the first five years of my career, but I sure did when I re-read the report—I felt a nausea-laden sense of anxiety that used to be the emotional place I lived in every day during that time. At the same time, I was struck by how brave we were for writing the things we did, and I remembered instances in          †   Jerry Burg graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1990. After being fired by a mid-sized, traditional law firm in January 1996, he sued them and started a solo practice, which he ultimately merged with an established small firm to provide a variety of legal services to the LGBT community. His practice largely focuses on family, criminal, and employment matters; he specializes in representing LGBT individuals and families. At the end of 2010, he returned to solo practice and has happily found a “home” at the Uptown Business Center with other solo/small law firms. Jerry has been an adjunct faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law since 2000, where he teaches “Work of the Lawyer.” His most important effort to date has been to co-parent his two daughters and participate in their lives as they have become amazing, gifted young women.  1Burg and Thome: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 HCBA ReportPublished by Mitchell Hamline Open Access, 2015 240 WILLIAM MITCHELL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 41:1 years since when other lawyers mentioned to me that they had read the report and that it delivered a necessary wake-up call. Participating in this project had a deeply personal impact on me, and for that reason alone, I am probably the worst coauthor to comment on any broad impact achieved by the report. Re-reading it made me feel good about playing a part in dragging homophobia out of the closet and challenging the profession to acknowledge the problem. Revisiting the report gave me the chance to reflect back with gratitude on the satisfying career I managed to build with the help of a wonderfully supportive community. So, thank you, for giving me the opportunity to remember that it was a damn powerful experience to work with these coauthors and draw confidence from their wisdom and courage.  2William Mitchell Law Review, Vol. 41, Iss. 1 [2015], Art. 9http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol41/iss1/9  241 Joni M. Thome† Thinking back to the development of the study and discussing how we would gather information makes me feel like it all happened a lifetime ago. At that time, just a few of us were willing to be known as the people to have initiated the study and to have our names publicized. Most of us were people that had chosen legal advocacy on behalf of LGBT people through nonprofit organizations as a part of our careers and, for us, the decision had been made long before 1995. A common characteristic for each of us, though, was that we had simply decided that one way to effect positive change in the legal community was to just be good lawyers out about our sexual orientation to the community—we wanted others to be safe and secure in doing the same. That could only be achieved through sharing the reality, which was that there were few venues in the Minnesota legal community where legal professionals did feel safe being out. At the same time, the secrecy, or “cloak and dagger” nature of the interviews, was necessary to protect the participants—no names, closed doors, sworn to never reveal the subjects.          † Joni M. Thome practices exclusively on behalf of plaintiffs in the areas of employment law and class action litigation. Ms. Thome is a 1992 graduate of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ms. Thome has successfully obtained millions of dollars for her clients in awards and settlements. She was one of the lead attorneys in a same-sex sexual harassment lawsuit which resulted in the largest known settlement in such a case to date. She is known for her appellate work relating to human and civil rights including cases involving governmental immunity, sexual orientation discrimination, and constitutional issues relating to speech and religion in the workplace. Ms. Thome is a Labor and Employment Law Specialist, certified by the Minnesota State Bar Association. She has worked as an adjunct professor at Hamline University School of Law, teaching sexual orientation and the law. Ms. Thome has been named Superlawyer by Minnesota Law and Politics and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine nearly every year since 2000; one of Minnesota’s Top 50 Woman Lawyers for several years; and, in 2014, one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Minnesota. Prior to becoming a founding partner of Baillon Thome Jozwiak & Wanta LLP, Ms. Thome was a senior attorney at a Minneapolis employment law firm where she was a member of the management committee. 3Burg and Thome: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 HCBA ReportPublished by Mitchell Hamline Open Access, 2015 242 WILLIAM MITCHELL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 41:1 Looking back now and knowing where many of those brave lawyers and law students are today, it all feels surreal. We are partners in law firms, politicians, and sponsors of LGBT events. We are founders, board members, volunteers, and CLE presenters on LGBT issues for organizations across Minnesota and on a national level. We are leaders in the Minnesota State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. The accomplishments of our community go on and on, and the world has changed immensely these last twenty years, more than we could ever have imagined. I am proud and honored to have had the opportunity to work with many of the subjects of the study over the years. I continue to have a deep bond and sense of pride with those with whom I worked to make the study a public reality all those years ago. I believe the point was made and well taken. 4William Mitchell Law Review, Vol. 41, Iss. 1 [2015], Art. 9http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/wmlr/vol41/iss1/9

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Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the 1995 HCBA Report

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