Doing battle in the boardroom

She is a familiar figure at State House rallies, with a blunt speaking style that seems tailor-made to galvanize the throngs of supporters who crowd in close to see her.

But before her landmark gay marriage lawsuit triumphed in the courts, lead plaintiff Julie Goodridge had quietly taken her battle to corporate boardrooms, where the stockbroker-turned-activist has persuaded a half-dozen companies to amend their nondiscrimination policies to include gays and lesbians.

In the last three years, Goodridge has taken on the likes of Caterpillar Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc., with resounding success. Soon after Goodridge filed each shareholder resolution, the companies changed their policies without waiting for a vote.

"It's kind of an easy resolution to present," Goodridge said. "How can you really argue against it? I couldn't see any way."

But this month, she faces one of her toughest corporate battles yet: Fifth Third Bank of Cincinnati, where her resolution could get caught in the crossfire of a gay marriage backlash. At least one local group promises repercussions for companies that "cave in to the homosexual agenda" -- and its leader wants Massachusetts' celebrated gay-rights activist to get out of town.

Goodridge manages about $75 million for wealthy clients with a social conscience. Under her leadership, the investment advisory firm NorthStar Asset Management has introduced a host of shareholder resolutions on issues ranging from predatory lending to executive pay, in addition to protecting gays against discrimination.

She became involved in the gay-protection resolutions in 2001, soon after signing onto the same-sex marriage lawsuit. Almost immediately, she said, she found her herself under intense public scrutiny, and she wanted to find a way to make sure her clients' investments were vetted, too.

Tootsie Roll, one of her first gay-protection resolutions, was easy. The company already provided domestic partner benefits for its employees, but it lacked formal nondiscrimination wording in its employment codes.

On New Year's Eve that year, Goodridge said, she received a call from Ellen Gordon, president of Tootsie Roll.

"She said, 'What can we do to keep this off the proxy ballot?' " Goodridge said. "After about 15 minutes, she agreed to change the company policy."

Since then, her firm has helped sponsor nine resolutions protecting gays and lesbians, succeeding in six. In 2002, she signed onto a resolution at Emerson Electric Co. that got about 10 percent of the vote. The other two, ExxonMobil and Fifth Third, are scheduled to come up for votes this year.

The resolutions are nonbinding, but it is common for companies to change policies if a significant number of shareholders vote in favor.

But from the start, Fifth Third was different. While most non-discrimination resolutions never come to a vote, Fifth Third Bank plans to leave the issue up to shareholders at its March 23 meeting, a move that Goodridge says could be driven by backlash over gay marriage. A Fifth Third spokeswoman would not comment on the bank's motivation, except to say that "we wanted to involve our shareholders in any amendment process."

Last month, Ohio's governor signed one of the nation's strongest Defense of Marriage acts, codifying marriage as between one man and one woman. Cincinnati also is gearing up for a fight this fall on a decade-old law that forbids the city from barring discrimination against gays.

A coalition of business leaders and elected officials want to overturn the law, but they have met with strong opposition from a group calling itself Equal Rights, Not Special Rights, and polls show public opinion is mixed. The chairman of that group, Phil Burress, has denounced Goodridge's nondiscrimination resolution at Fifth Third, saying it should not provide "special rights" to gays.

"If Fifth Third embraces this action, I expect that there will be fallouts," he said. "There's a lot of competition out there in the banking business. I believe the backlash has begun."

Shareholder battles are a perfect fit for Goodridge, whom friends describe as equally vocal in public and in her private life. She is known to needle acquaintances to attend gay-marriage rallies at the State House -- and call them up if she does not see them in the crowd.

"She didn't say 'Hello,' she just said, 'Where were you?' " said Shelley Alpern, director of social research and advocacy at Trillium Asset Management in Boston. "I said, 'There were 5,000 people there. What do you mean you noticed I was missing?' "

In her office in Jamaica Plain, Goodridge sits with her feet up on a coffee table, across from a green couch speckled with dog hair. Down the hall, an "employee of the month" plaque features a photo of the dog, Tori, wearing a bridal veil.

It's not quite the tony digs of most money-management companies. But for Goodridge, being unconventional is almost a badge of honor.

"Julie has always had that strong sense of purpose," said Amy Domini, president and chief executive of Domini Social Investments in New York City and a longtime friend. "There are people in the world who write their own rules, and everyone else has to live by them. They can behave differently and get away with it."

In the vote in Cincinnati, the controversy over Massachusetts' gay marriage case might also give Goodridge a good shot at winning the Fifth Third resolution, said Alpern of Trillium. The heat on marriage could make the nondiscrimination issue seem easy by comparison, she said.

Corporate mores are also changing. A majority of Fortune 500 companies now guarantee equal protection for gay and lesbian employees, according to a report by the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C.

But win or lose at Fifth Third, Goodridge does not plan to abandon the fight anytime soon. She said she did not know the resolution would be so controversial, but wouldn't have cared if she had.

"She's not going to say, 'OK, I'll let this be someone else's fight,' " Domini said. "She's going to say it's wrong, and she's not going to let it go. She's going to take it as far as she can."

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.