Posted by on Friday, May 30, 2014
Welcome to this week’s Diversity Dish and Happy Friday! This week there is quite a bit of (mostly negative) news on the diversity front – mainly stemming from The Diversity Scorecard in The American Lawyer. Today is also the LAST day to register for the NALP / ALFDP Diversity and Inclusion Summit in Chicago on June 6! You can complete your registration here. Enjoy this week’s Diversity Dish, Happy Friday and if you aren’t already, follow us on Twitter @CourtneyDredden.
5.29.14 The
American Lawyer asks the question we all wonder when it comes to diversity
in law firms: what’s going on? According to the magazine’s Diversity Scorecard,
only 3 percent of all lawyers (and 1.9 percent of partners) are black. This
special edition of the American Lawyer contains eight interesting/ depressing
news stories and we encourage you to read all of them. We will highlight a few
of those stories here.
5.29.14 Julie Triedman writes
on Big Law’s continuing failure to retain and advance black lawyers. Everyone agrees
there is a problem on the diversity front, but what is the reason for the extremely
low numbers of black partners? Possible explanations range from partnership no
longer being an attractive option for black lawyers due to law firm pressures
to the narrowing of the pipeline. However,
“what still is lacking, many black lawyers and diversity directors say, is a
broad commitment by individual white partners to ensuring the success of
minority lawyers, and particularly black lawyers. Recent research has painted
an alarming picture of the continuing presence of unconscious racial bias at
firms. The research confirms what a lot of black lawyers have known all along:
It's not enough to recruit more black associates if you don't deal with
pervasive bias.”
6.1.14 Vivia Chen wonders if it’s time to call the “diversity crisis” another name: racism. Chen questions the oft-given line for why there aren’t more diverse attorneys: “we can’t compromise on our standards.” Chen states that she began wondering if “standards” was code for something else after hearing it so many times. “What makes the legal field so impenetrable, I think, is that lawyers, particularly those in major firms, believe that they are intellectually superior. Firms promote this cult of cerebralism, preaching that only the brightest and most tenacious will win the prize. To some members of the establishment, minorities don't quite fit the bill.” Chen asks some hard hitting questions, but brings up something that we should all be thinking about and working towards eliminating – bias is real and moving past it is necessary if we are ever to have real progress.
6.1.14 Michael D. Goldhaber writes about what some of the original trailblazers have to say about where we are today in terms of diversity within the legal profession. “Over 35 years, the representation of African-Americans at the top 50 law partnerships crawled up from 0.3 percent to 1.9 percent.” The original pioneers expressed frustration with where we are today and dismay that the numbers are still so terrible. However, they did offer some interesting explanations: “It might be that more African-American lawyers are seeing fit to either have their own firm or go in-house or do other work beside practicing law.” Even given that, it’s a shame that the numbers have only crawled up and all the pioneers agreed that change MUST occur.
