NALP Bulletin, August 2004 

Related: November 2004 Press Release — Women and Attorneys of Color Continue to Make Only Small Gains at Large Law Firms

Looking at the larger lawyer population as reflected in the NALP Directory of Legal Employers shows that, among partners, African-Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics are relatively equally represented. Among associates, however, Asian/Pacific Islanders account for half of minorities. As is the case with new graduates, and sometimes paralleling them, these measures vary from city to city, as illustrated in the table on the opposite page.

Thus, most minority partners and associates in Miami are Hispanic. Asian/Pacific Islanders dominate in Los Angeles and San Francisco; African-Americans do so in Atlanta and Detroit. The few other cities with relatively high Hispanic representation include Austin and Tampa.

Attorney Demographics at Private Sector Employers – 2003

	PARTNERS					ASSOCIATES
	Total # of Partners	% Minority	% African-American	% Asian/P. Islander	%Hispanic	Total # of Associates	%Minority	% African-American	% Asian/P. Islander	% Hispanic
Overall	52,943	4.04%	1.38%	1.31%	1.20%	62,706	14.63%	4.07%	7.01%	2.96%
BY FIRM SIZE (# OF LAWYERS):
100 or fewer	7,989	3.87	0.83	1.99	0.90	6,232	10.83	2.60	4.91	2.63
101-250	14,148	3.25	1.30	0.85	0.96	12,757	11.74	3.75	4.96	2.52
251-500	12,800	3.65	1.53	0.92	1.02	13,790	13.55	4.48	5.26	2.55
501+	18,006	5.01	1.58	1.64	1.64	29,927	17.16	4.31	9.12	3.40
BY CITY:
Atlanta	1,479	3.99	3.11	0.47	0.34	1,870	13.16	8.72	2.78	1.39
Austin	443	6.55	1.58	0.23	3.39	472	12.08	2.33	4.45	4.87
Baltimore	493	3.45	2.23	0.41	0.61	365	5.75	3.29	1.37	0.55
Birmingham	394	1.52	1.27	0.00	0.00	264	4.55	3.41	0.00	0.38
Boston	1,821	3.02	1.43	1.04	0.44	2,479	10.69	2.34	6.25	1.82
Charlotte	474	2.53	1.05	1.05	0.42	451	7.32	5.54	0.67	1.11
Chicago	3,992	3.41	1.35	1.10	0.90	3,713	11.77	3.77	5.87	1.83
Cincinnati	455	1.98	1.76	0.22	—	404	4.95	3.22	0.99	0.74
Cleveland	694	3.31	2.45	0.29	0.29	723	5.95	3.04	2.07	0.55
Columbus	595	3.87	2.69	0.50	0.17	512	8.98	4.49	3.13	0.78
Dallas	1,549	3.94	1.03	0.58	1.87	1,796	11.47	2.84	3.01	5.18
Denver	537	3.91	1.68	0.93	1.30	474	12.45	2.53	2.95	5.91
Detroit area	913	4.05	3.29	0.33	0.44	567	10.93	7.23	2.12	1.23
Hartford	459	0.87	0.65	0.22	0.00	521	6.53	2.30	2.30	1.92
Houston	1,213	4.78	1.24	0.66	2.64	1,445	21.45	5.19	4.78	4.91
Indianapolis	442	2.49	1.58	0.68	0.23	390	5.64	3.08	1.54	1.03
Kansas City area	647	1.70	0.77	0.46	0.31	588	6.97	3.40	1.70	1.87
Los Angeles	2,363	7.02	1.74	3.00	2.12	3,334	20.97	3.15	12.54	4.47
Miami	639	19.41	1.56	0.63	16.90	530	38.11	6.04	1.51	30.00
Milwaukee	675	1.04	0.15	0.30	0.44	498	8.23	3.21	3.01	1.61
Minneapolis/St. Paul	1,232	1.95	0.73	0.57	0.32	937	9.93	3.31	4.59	1.28
Nashville	364	2.20	2.20	—	—	265	5.28	3.40	0.75	0.75
New York City	6,257	4.03	0.99	1.79	1.20	13,890	18.65	4.46	10.42	3.33
Newark area	420	1.67	0.71	0.24	0.71	626	10.86	4.15	3.35	3.04
Northern Virginia	311	3.86	1.29	2.25	0.32	358	12.85	4.19	5.59	3.07
Orange Co., CA	453	3.31	0.22	2.21	0.88	623	16.69	1.12	11.88	3.53
Philadelphia	1,627	2.21	1.78	0.31	0.12	1,775	8.11	3.94	2.76	1.24
Phoenix	613	3.43	0.98	0.33	1.63	529	12.29	2.08	4.91	3.78
Pittsburgh	670	1.34	0.60	0.60	0.15	660	5.30	1.97	2.58	0.61
Portland, OR	506	2.17	0.59	0.59	0.79	360	8.06	1.67	5.00	1.11
Raleigh/Durham	188	1.06	1.06	0.00	0.00	168	5.95	3.57	1.19	0.60
Richmond	520	2.50	1.92	0.19	0.19	426	7.51	5.63	1.17	0.70
San Diego	444	4.50	0.23	1.58	2.25	588	16.50	1.70	7.99	4.93
San Francisco	1,535	6.19	1.24	3.19	1.37	2,146	20.83	3.08	13.47	3.73
San Jose area	700	8.14	0.86	5.29	1.71	1,560	25.58	2.05	20.51	2.18
Seattle area	1,008	5.26	1.29	3.37	0.40	785	14.52	2.80	8.66	1.66
St. Louis	593	2.02	1.35	0.34	0.34	477	9.22	5.45	2.31	1.05
Tampa/St. Petersburg	364	4.12	0.55	0.27	3.02	293	9.56	3.07	1.71	4.78
Washington, DC	4,935	4.40	2.07	1.30	0.99	6,409	15.54	6.13	6.51	2.42
Wilmington	283	0.71	0.35	0.35	0.00	295	8.47	4.07	2.71	1.69

Source: The 2003-2004 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Nationwide, a total of 1,357 law offices are represented. For law firms that repeated firmwide information on lawyers 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 Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Seattle area includes offices in Bellevue and Kirkland. The Detroit area includes offices in Bloomfield Hills, Bingham Farms, and Southfield. The Newark area includes offices in Newark, West Orange, and Roseland. The few Native American and multi-racial lawyers reported are included in the minority percentages, but are not reported separately.