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Women and Blacks Make Little Progress at Big Law Firms (nyt)
| Pea-brained Razzle-dazzle Space Mad Cow Disease | 11/19/15 |
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Date: November 19th, 2015 11:41 AM Author: Pea-brained Razzle-dazzle Space Mad Cow Disease Women and blacks have made almost no headway in recent years in increasing their ranks at major United States law firms, according to the latest data from the National Association for Law Placement.
The organization’s annual compilation of legal employer data shows that although women and minorities made small gains at the level of law firm partner this year, the overall percentage of women associates, or entry-level lawyers, dropped in the last five years, and the percentage of African-American associates has declined every year since 2009.
“It’s troubling to see the numbers for women and African-American associates seemingly reversing course,” said James G. Leipold, the association’s executive director. This year, he said, “marks the sixth year of decline in representation of black associates and, while the percentage decrease is small, the overall number itself was small to begin with, so any decline is significant, and the trend is distressing.”
At the partnership level, representation of women and minorities rose slightly this year, compared with 2014. Women accounted for 21.46 percent of partners, up from 21.05 percent last year. Minorities accounted for 7.52 percent, up from 7.33 percent in 2014. Twenty-three years ago, in 1993, when the association first began tracking the numbers, women made up 12.27 percent of partners and minorities accounted for 2.55 percent of partners.
Much of the increase in minority partners since 2009, the report found, comes from a rise in the number of Asian and Hispanic partners. African-Americans made up only 1.7 percent of partners in 2015. Minority women fared better at firms of more than 700 lawyers, holding 3.12 percent of partnerships, but only 2.55 percent of such law firm jobs over all.
Minorities expanded their presence among associate lawyers after being thinned in 2009 because of layoffs resulting from the shaky economy. The number of female associates remained nearly flat over the last three years, settling at 44.68 percent this year, which the association said was the lowest percentage since 2006. The peak number of female associates was in 2009, when they represented 45.66 percent.
“For women too,” Mr. Leipold said, “after years of small gains, the pattern of flat to declining representation among associates in law firms is disturbing.”
It was only in the recruitment of summer associates that law firm numbers compared more favorably to the population of recent law school graduates. According to American Bar Association figures, women have accounted for 46 percent to 49 percent of law school graduates, and minorities accounted for 20 percent and 26 percent of graduates since 2000. Summer associate jobs, however, are essentially two- or three-month tryouts that do not necessarily lead to a full-time associate job.
Although firm records vary widely, with some firms excelling at diversity, Mr. Leipold noted that future gains for women and minorities “are jeopardized by the shrinking pool at the associate level, and it is clear that measuring overall levels of diversity within law firms is inadequate without also looking at representation by specific race and ethnicity.”
The report included information on 113,000 partners, associates and other lawyers in 1,081 law firm offices.
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