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It’s good to be known as an attorney who is knowledgeable about LGBT issues and helps corporations to be inclusive. Way past being tolerant, they must embrace our community, including the transgender employees, which some groups are still struggling to do.
Higgins has always been out profes- sionally, she says it was trickier to come out at work than home: Each job took a different amount of time, she explains. Te city attorney’s office in San Diego was as conservative as a white shoe firm, but still, as she made friends and began to feel more comfortable, Higgins came out when it felt right. It was easy to be out at SAG in
Hollywood, she remembers, and the same for Sega. At Sony, Higgins made it clear during her first inter- view with the GC that she was out. “It’s so freeing. I didn’t have to fret about whether to place a photo of my partner on my desk or talk specifically about my home life. When you’re out, you no longer have to waste energy being concerned about those things.” Andrea A. Kimball, a partner at
SNR Denton U.S., met Higgins 15 years ago when they served on the
board of the Tom Homann Law Association in San Diego, a nonprofit LGBT law association dedicated to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues throughout California and the country. “Tristan is without doubt a trailblazer,” she says. “Her bravery of being out in the workplace helps her co-workers.” Shortly after joining Sony, says
Kimball, Higgins worked to make the entertainment company a more inclusive, welcoming environ- ment for all LGBT employees. She founded Sony’s Equality Alliance, an employee resource group that now boasts participation from six Sony affiliates (Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Network Entertainment, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Sony Music Entertainment). She also got
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
Sony involved with the San Diego Pride Parade and Festival, and has served as a mentor for Sony’s interns placed through the San Diego County Bar Association’s Diversity Fellowship Program. Higgins and a lesbian colleague
can also be credited with Sony Electronics’ participation in the annual Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index. In close partnership with Human Resources and Sony’s diversity team, Higgins’ efforts helped Sony achieve a score of 95/100 in Sony’s first year participat- ing in the 2011 Index and a score of 90/100 for 2012 and 2013, and a very exciting, but as yet unreleased, score for 2014. “We convinced Sony that it wasn’t just the right thing to do, but it was also very good for business,” says Higgins. “A high rating attracts better job candidates and more customers.” While her first concern is turning out first-rate work, Higgins says “It’s good to be known as an attorney who’s knowledgeable about LGBT issues and helps corporations to be inclusive. Way past being tolerant, they must embrace our community, including the transgender employees, which some groups are still struggling to do.” In 2012, Higgins received the
National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Bar Association’s Out & Proud Corporate Counsel Award. She speaks regularly at various bar associations and law school events about being out in the profession, and tirelessly meets with LGBT students and LGBT attorneys who ask for her guidance. She considers it her responsibility within the profession: “I was warned I might be overwhelmed, but that’s OK. I’ve benefited from informa- tional meetings with powerful, diverse women and men who took the time to talk to me, so I’m happy to talk to students and attorneys who are gay, straight, minorities, what- ever. I get busy, but if they’re willing to wait a little, I’ll meet for that cof- fee and see how I can help.” D&B
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