Posted by on Friday, June 20, 2014
Welcome to this week’s Diversity Dish and Happy Friday! After
a brief hiatus, the Diversity Dish is back! Per usual, there is both good news
and not so good news this week. In good news, New York law firms have made some
progress with regards to diversity. In not so good news the gap between men and
women at leadership levels continues to reach horrifying levels. Read on for
more details! Enjoy this week’s Diversity Dish, Happy Friday and if you aren’t
already, follow us on Twitter @CourtneyDredden.
6.13.14 Today’s General Counsel looks at a recent Above the Law piece, coupled with an article by Adam Smith and confirms what we all already know: that there is a major drop off in female attorneys between being hired and making partner. Adam Smith’s article highlights this chart from the National Association of Women Lawyers, which shows that as the position gets more advanced, the number of women drastically drops. Smith proposes the following as reasons for the dropoff: “unequal exposure to the most talented senior partners and the most interesting cases, and unequal participation in networks outside the office.”
6.18.14 Christine Simmons reports in the New York Law Journal that while New York law firms have made some progress in the diversity sphere, it has been slow and limited. “Over the past 10 years, firms have made progress diversifying the associate pipeline and increasing LGBT representation. But nearly 70 percent of about 60 firms surveyed did not have one attorney of color on their management committees last year. And minorities and women are leaving firms at higher rates than white male attorneys.” Where was the progress most notable? In the associate pipeline – those numbers were (slowly, but steadily) moving up. However, just like we read in the General Counsel article above, the rise in numbers isn’t yet translating into a rise in the numbers on management committees, which tells us that there is still much to be done.
