LeGaL Board of Directors' Released Statement

January 23, 2007, 5pm
(per their website www.le-gal.org and an email to an NYU alumn)

As a law association of the LGBT community, our organization has
followed news of the recent discrimination lawsuit filed against the
law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell by Aaron Brett Charney. Our
knowledge of the case is of course limited to what is communicated
in the media - both online and in print - and in public court filings.
As a result, none of us are capable of determining, at this stage,
what actually transpired.

We do know, however, that Mr. Charney's allegations of
discrimination are quite serious. Given the gravity of the
allegations and the early stage of legal proceedings, we sincerely
regret that an officer of our organization has been quoted as
essentially prejudging the merits of the lawsuit and the veracity of
Mr. Charney, and that the officer also made subsequent comments.
That was wrong - plain and simple. Since we believe the initial
comments were wrong, we also believe any subsequent attempt to
justify the initial comments were also wrong.

As lawyers, we are especially mindful of the dangers of
prematurely judging evidence and of trying a case in the press. If
Mr. Charney has suffered discrimination because of his sexual
orientation (or for any other reason), he is entitled to not only his
day in court but also the full support of the LGBT community and
others who care about basic civil rights. We are deeply sorry that
an officer of our organization, which aims in part to eliminate
discrimination and to encourage LGBT individuals to choose law as
a career, made public comments dismissive of Mr. Charney's claims.
The views expressed by that officer do not represent the views of
our Board, nor, we suspect, the views of our members. This
statement is being released within 24 hours of our learning of
the comments.

While it is true that Sullivan & Cromwell, as well as many other
law firms, have been supporters of our organization, that fact does
not bear on the crucial question of what actually transpired between
Mr. Charney and his colleagues and superiors at the firm. The
courtroom is the proper forum for such facts to be uncovered.

To all those who rightfully found the comments at issue troubling
or even dangerous, we offer again our apologies.