NALP Bulletin, January 2002 

Analyses of the 2001 NALP Directory of Legal Employers data show that attorneys of color are relatively more common at government and public interest organizations than at law firms. Attorneys of color accounted for 3.55% of the more than 48,000 partners collectively reported by law firms. Among a far smaller number of public service employers, attorneys of color accounted for 10% of the more than 6,000 supervising attorneys reported. Attorneys of color are defined as African-Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Hispanics of any race.

The composition of the attorney of color population also differs between the two types of employers. In law firms, African-Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics were relatively equally represented among partners. At public service employers, African-Americans accounted for almost half of the reported supervising attorneys of color. (The small number of Native Americans — 46 partners and 17 supervising attorneys — are not analyzed in any detail here.)

Among the nearly 60,000 associates and staff or senior attorneys reported by law firms, somewhat more than one in seven (13.7%) were attorneys of color, with Asian/Pacific Islanders most common (48% of associates of color), followed by African-Americans. Public service employers reported that nearly one in five of the more than 18,000 staff attorneys were people of color. Among this group, African-Americans were most common (45% of the total), followed by Hispanics.

The presence of partners and associates of color at law firms varies by firm size and, to an even greater degree, across cities. For example:

• The percentage of partners of color as a whole is highest at firms of 501 or more attorneys. African-American and Hispanic partners are most common at the largest firms; in contrast, representation of Asian/Pacific Islanders is greatest at firms of 100 or fewer.

• Representation of attorneys of color among partners is highest in Miami, followed by Los Angeles and the San Jose area. Miami's partners of color are overwhelmingly Hispanic, whereas in Los Angeles and the San Jose area Asian/Pacific Islanders account for the largest share of partners of color, about half the total. These differences are indicative of the population characteristics of these areas.

• In cities such as Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Richmond, most of the partners of color are African-American, whereas in cities such as Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C., no one group accounts for the bulk of partners of color. A number of cities reported no Asian/Pacific or Hispanic representation among partners, but all cities reported at least some African-American partners.

• Representation of attorneys of color among associates in general, and most notably of Asian/Pacific Islanders specifically, is highest at the largest firms.

• Associates of color are most prevalent in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the San Jose area. Again in Miami associates of color were largely Hispanic. The majority of associates of color in the San Francisco/San Jose area were Asian/Pacific Islander.

• Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Portland are notable for a fairly equal representation of the three groups of color among associates.

Attorney Demographics at Public Service Employers

Source: The 2001 NALP Directory of Legal Employers.

Attorney Demographics at Private and Public Sector Employers — 2001

Source: The 2001 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Nationwide, a total of 1,279 law offices and 119 government/public interest employers are represented. For law firms that repeated firmwide information on attorneys of color for each office listing, demographic information was retained for just one office to avoid double counting. The associates category includes senior and staff attorneys. The Kansas City area includes offices in Leawood and Overland Park, Kansas. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Cupertino, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Seattle area includes offices in Bellevue and Kirkland. The Detroit area includes offices in Bloomfield Hills and Troy.