Trans Inclusion in the Legal Profession

Most lawyers want to treat their transgender colleagues and clients well, and many are afraid of getting it wrong. What does real inclusion look like in a law school, a law firm, or a legal department, and what stands in its way?

In this TalksOnLaw interview, Joel Cohen sits down with M. Dru Levasseur, then Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and earlier the director of Lambda Legal's Transgender Rights Project. Drawing on his own transition, his litigation, and his consulting work with legal employers, Dru covers etiquette and pronouns, the fear of making mistakes, retention and mentoring, data, restrooms, benefits, bias, and allyship.

Transitioning in Law School

Dru started law school with one name and pronouns and finished as Dru, using he/him. The change was public, so he embraced it head-on. He faced harassment on and off campus; once, a carload of laughing classmates sped toward him as he crossed the street to school. Help came from a clinical professor, a straight woman, who told him, "I don't know anything about this transgender stuff, but we're going to figure it out." Allyship, Dru says, takes no expertise, only openness and kindness. Knowing of no other trans students at his school, he found community at the LGBTQ+ Bar's Lavender Law conference, where he met Judge Phyllis Frye of Texas and, with executive director D'Arcy Kemnitz's support, held a trans networking reception for about 20 people. Its successor, a transgender institute, has drawn 200 registrants.

The Fear of Making a Mistake

Not every trans person wants to be the office's educator, so Dru comes into firms as an outside resource. Polling the roughly 20,000 legal professionals he has trained, he hears the same answer about the biggest barrier to LGBTQ+ inclusion: fear of making a mistake. Lawyers are well-meaning perfectionists who need information to act with confidence. Some questions, such as a person's former name, are off limits; everyday practices, such as everyone sharing pronouns, help people avoid misgendering one another.

A Community in the Crosshairs

After the marriage equality victory, Dru believes, opponents turned to the community's most vulnerable members. More than 100 anti-trans bills were then pending, most about trans girls in sports and medical care for trans youth, care he regards as safe, incremental, and potentially life-saving; he recommends Dr. Izzy Lowell's podcast interview with Chris Hayes. Noting the Williams Institute's then-estimate of about 1.4 million trans Americans, he sees the bills as politically motivated and objects to the phrase "biological sex." His answer is visibility. Many LGBTQ+ lawyers remain in a "legal closet," and the share who identify as LGBTQ+ drops between law school and practice because work does not feel safe. Coming out is a personal choice, he says, but you never know who is in the room; partners have told him they have a trans child.

Clients Who Changed the Law

His best-known client, Robina Asti, a World War II pilot who had transitioned in the 1970s and lived "stealth" for decades, was denied Social Security survivor benefits at 92 after her husband died. Lambda Legal petitioned the agency and won, and she told her story publicly. To Dru she was "a trans grandmother" many never had. Every client he warned about the publicity of an impact case still said yes, to "make a difference for the rest of my community."

Retention and the Path to Partner

Trans people, especially trans people of color, face the highest rates of discrimination within the LGBTQ+ community. NALP data then showed LGBTQ+ representation at firms rising from about 1 to 3 percent over 16 years, highest among summer associates and lowest among partners, with gains going mostly to white gay men. National Association of Women Lawyers data show a similar drop-off for women of color. In confidential interviews with LGBTQ+ associates of color and trans and non-binary Big Law attorneys, Dru heard that even firms celebrated for diversity can feel very different to them. Mentoring decides who makes partner, and first-generation lawyers lack built-in networks. A firm can check every policy box and still fail if the culture does not follow.

Pronouns: From Policy to Practice

One attorney's firm allowed pronouns in email signatures, but nobody used them. At the next firm, a colleague saw "he or they" in the attorney's signature and asked which they preferred, and that made the difference. Widespread pronoun use, Dru explains, takes the burden off those often misgendered and signals that trans and non-binary people are welcome. A partner who added pronouns after his training later heard that they helped win a competitive pitch. Dru recalls being misgendered before an administrative body, which distracted from his client. Correct pronouns are basic professional respect.

Counting Everyone

Self-identification surveys ask about identity, not anyone's sex life, Dru says, and when voluntary and confidential they tell LGBTQ+ people they are welcome to be counted. The Bar Association turned its Lavender Law recruiter checklist into an online DEI index reporting firms' policies and numbers of LGBTQ+ partners and associates, and it surveys law school climate.

Restrooms and Benefits

"Restrooms equals access to public life," Dru says. He advises firms to add single-stall, all-gender restrooms, which are popular with everyone, and to train staff that people use multi-stall restrooms matching their gender identity without gender policing. Benefits parity also matters in a competitive market. Many plans carve out transition-related care, and some employers buy added coverage to meet the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index standard. Medical necessity, Dru stresses, is an individualized decision for doctors, including for facial feminization surgery. In prisons, the Seventh Circuit held in Fields v. Smith that Wisconsin's ban on such care for inmates was cruel and unusual; Dru considers that principle settled, but translating it to private insurance is harder.

Bias, Allyship, and Practice

Microaggressions are common ("You don't even try to fit in, do you?"), and implicit bias is universal, but in cases like Glenn v. Brumby and Aimee Stephens's case, decided with Bostock, employers said outright that transitioning was the reason. One non-binary attorney's they/them nameplate drew three "Is this a joke?" visits in a day. Trans lawyers are often "the only" and struggle to find sponsors, so Dru urges colleagues to channel that clinical professor. Singular "they" was Merriam-Webster's 2019 word of the year, and a former intern of Dru's practices in New York courts as Mx. Dru admits misgendering people himself. Being avoided hurts most, he says, so keep trying. He asks employers to see trans lawyers' resilience as a strength and to champion them.

What to Know Now

Under Bostock v. Clayton County, firing someone for being transgender still violates Title VII, but its reach is contested. In 2025 the EEOC narrowed its processing of gender identity charges to hiring, firing, and promotion, and a Texas federal court vacated the gender identity portions of the agency's harassment guidance, including examples on misgendering and restrooms. In January 2026 the Commission rescinded the guidance by a 2–1 vote; the chair says Bostock reached only hiring and firing, while the dissent called the move overbroad. Twenty-two states and D.C. expressly bar gender identity discrimination in employment, and nine more read their sex discrimination laws to include it.

The Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's limits on medical treatments for minors in United States v. Skrmetti (2025) and state sports laws in West Virginia v. B.P.J. (2026). The Williams Institute counts 27 states restricting such care for minors, 29 with sports restrictions, and 25 with restroom or facility rules, while 17 states and D.C. have shield laws. The medical debate continues: a 2025 HHS review found the evidence of benefit weak, and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons now advises deferring surgery until 19, while the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society support individualized care. Federal policy shifted, too: agencies dropped pronouns from email signatures, the Supreme Court let new passport and military policies take effect during litigation, and a court blocked a prison policy ending hormone therapy.

Benefits claims have weakened after the Eleventh Circuit's en banc ruling in Lange v. Houston County and the vacatur of the Fourth Circuit's ruling in Kadel. Firm DEI faced EEOC inquiries, White House agreements with nine firms, and executive orders against four firms that courts struck down, with appeals pending; the ABA repealed its law school diversity standard in 2026. Programs that restrict eligibility by a protected trait carry the most risk, while the everyday practices Dru describes, open to all, do not. The need remains: NALP reports LGBTQ+ lawyers are 4.90 percent of firm lawyers but 2.67 percent of partners, and the Williams Institute estimates 2.8 million Americans aged 13 and older are transgender. Dru now leads a networking program for trans legal professionals. His advice holds: keep trying.