February 17, 2015

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According to the latest law firm demographic findings from NALP, women and minority partners continued to make small gains in their representation among law firm partners as a whole in 2014, and the percentage of minority associates has gone up for the fourth year in a row after falling in 2010 in the wake of the recession. Although the percentage of women associates increased a bit after eroding from 2010 to 2013, it has yet to go above the 45% mark reached in 2009-2012.

Associates

NALP’s newest findings on law firm demographics reveal that law firms have more than recouped the ground lost when minority associate figures fell in 2010 following widespread associate layoffs in 2009. In addition, the representation of women among associates finally nudged up after declining for four years in a row, returning to the general pattern of steady though small increases in place since NALP started compiling this information in the 1990s. Among associates, the percentage of women had increased from 38.99% in 1993 to 45.66% in 2009, before falling back in each of the four following years. The trend reversed in 2014. Over the same period, minority associate percentages have increased from 8.36% to 21.63%, more than recovering from a slight decline from 2009 to 2010. Representation of minority women among associates has increased from just about 11% from 2009-2012 to 11.51% in 2014. See Table 1.

Partners

In 2014, the percentage of both women and minority partners in law firms across the nation increased a small amount over 2013. Representation of minority women specifically was up by a small amount, as was representation of minorities as a whole. During most of the 22 years that NALP has been compiling this information, law firms had made steady, if somewhat slow, progress in increasing the presence of women and minorities in both the partner and associate ranks. In 2014 that slow upward trend continued for partners, with minorities accounting for 7.33% of partners in the nation’s major firms, and women accounting for 21.05% of the partners in these firms. In 2013, the figures were 7.10% and 20.22%, respectively. Nonetheless, the total change since 1993, the first year for which NALP has comparable aggregate information, has been only marginal. At that time minorities accounted for 2.55% of partners and women accounted for 12.27% of partners. At just 2.45% of partners in 2014, minority women continue to be the most dramatically underrepresented group at the partnership level, a pattern that holds across all firm sizes and most jurisdictions. This is despite small but consistent year-over-year increases. The representation of minority women partners is somewhat higher, 2.98%, at the largest firms of more than 700 lawyers. Minority men, meanwhile, account for just 4.88% of partners this year, compared with 4.84% in 2013. This means that most of the relative increase in minorities among partners can be attributed to increased representation of minority women. See Table 1.

Lawyers Overall

For lawyers as a whole, representation of women (both minority and non-minority) was up by about seven-tenths of a percentage point and is now higher than in 2009, after being below that level from 2010-2013. The representation of minorities among lawyers as a whole also rose a bit in 2014, to 13.83%. Some of the gain among women overall can be attributed to increases in women among the partnership ranks. However, it should also be noted that some of the increase can be attributed to increased representation of women in general and minority women specifically among lawyers other than partners and associates, such as “of counsel” and staff attorneys, who in 2014 accounted for 13% of attorneys at these firms. For example, women accounted for about 40% of these other attorneys in 2014, compared with about 38% in 2013 — a bigger increase than in any other category. Nonetheless, since the overall figure for women fell in both 2010 and 2011, the increases in the past three years mean that the overall percentage for women, at 33.48%, remains just one-half of one percentage point higher than in 2009, when the figure was 32.97%. Minorities now make up 13.83% of lawyers at these law firms, compared with 13.36% in 2013. Minority women now account for 6.74% of lawyers at these firms, up from 6.49% in 2013. See Table 1.

Summer Associates

The representation of women and minorities in the summer associate ranks compare much more favorably to the population of recent law school graduates. According to the American Bar Association, since 2000, the percentage of minority law school graduates has ranged from 20% to over 25%, while women have accounted for 46% to 49% of graduates, with the high point coming in the mid-2000s. In 2014, women comprised 46.33% of summer associates, minorities accounted for 30.27%, and 16.63% of summer associates were minority women. Although all of these measures improved over 2013, when every figure went down, the representation of women as a whole is below what it was in 2009, though still in line with the representation of women among law school graduates as a whole. In addition, the overall number of summer associates remains off by about one-third compared with 2009, despite increases in the numbers after they bottomed out in 2010 and 2011.

These are the most significant findings of NALP’s recent analyses of the 2014-2015 NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE), the annual compendium of legal employer data published by NALP.

NALP’s Executive Director Comments on Slight Gains

“It’s good to see the numbers heading in the right direction again,” said James Leipold, NALP’s executive director. “The changes are incremental, but across every category that we measure, the national figures show that the representation of women and minorities at law firms increased from 2013 to 2014. It’s clear that law firms need to remain constantly vigilant in order to continue making progress, and really even to avoid backsliding, as we saw with the women associate numbers following the recession. Also individual law firms should not be allowed to hide behind the national figures. The story varies tremendously firm by firm and city by city, and while there are a small number of jurisdictions where overall levels of law firm lawyer diversity exceed the national figures, there are far more where diversity continues to lag considerably, and where little progress has been seen year to year,” Leipold concluded.

Patterns of Representation Vary by Geography

Analyses for the 40 cities with the most lawyers represented in the directory reveal considerable variations in measures of racial/ethnic diversity. Representation of women among partners ranges from about 12% in Salt Lake City and Northern Virginia to 28% in Denver and over 25% in Detroit, San Francisco, and Seattle. Percentages for minority partners range from less than 0.5% in the Raleigh/Durham area to a high of 29.48% in Miami. The newest NDLE data also reveal that representation of minority women among partners varies considerably by geographic location, with firms in Miami reporting the highest level of representation, at 7.84%. This contrasts with five cities where minority women make up less than 1% of partners. Likewise percentages for women associates ranged from less than one-quarter in Salt Lake City to close to half or more in Indianapolis, Portland, OR, San Francisco, and Columbus. For minority associates the range was from 10% or less in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Wilmington to 38% in Miami and the San Jose area. Figures for minority women associates range from 0.91% in Salt Lake City to 15-20% in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the San Jose area.

Among the largest of these cities (those with more than 900 partners represented), Los Angeles and San Francisco show the highest representation of women, minorities, and minority women among both partners and associates. Minorities account for 13.76% and 11.84% of partners in these two cities, respectively, and women account for 21.73% and 25.74% of partners, respectively. Figures for minority women partners are 4.78% and 4.04%, respectively. Firms in Seattle and Washington, DC, also met or slightly exceeded national averages on these measures.

Among smaller cities, Miami exceeds national averages, and a number of cities including Austin, San Diego, Detroit, San Jose, and Orange County, CA, do so with respect to minority associates. In Miami, women account for 24.44% of partners; minorities, many of whom are Hispanic, account for 29.48% of partners, and 7.48% of partners are minority women. In the San Jose area over 38% of associates are minorities and over 20% are minority women. In Orange County, CA, over 26% of associates are minorities. In Austin, San Diego, and Detroit the figures are about 22-26% though the percentage of minority women specifically is somewhat below average in each.

In many other cities, the picture is considerably different: Cities that are below average on most or all measures and considerably so with respect to minorities include Charlotte, Cleveland, Raleigh/Durham, and Salt Lake City. Numerous others, such as Boston, Minneapolis, Portland, OR, Indianapolis, and St. Louis are at or above average with respect to women, but lag on minority representation. In still other cities, such as Cincinnati, Columbus, Denver, Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore, only the percentages of women partners or associates are at or above average. These findings reflect in part considerable contrasts in the population as a whole in these areas. For example, according to recent population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of the Grand Rapids area is only about 20% minority (that is, Hispanic or non-White), and in Pittsburgh that figure is just 13%. In contrast, at over 70% Hispanic or non-White, the population of Los Angeles can be characterized as majority minority. But minority representation within law firms does not always parallel minority representation within the overall population of an area. For example, in the Charlotte area, about 40% of the population is minority, but this diversity is not reflected among lawyers working in law firms in that city.

Among summer associates, minorities have the highest representation in Miami and Seattle, at about 47%, followed closely by Portland, OR, and the San Jose area. Representation of minority women among summer associates is highest in Miami and the San Jose area. (See Table 2 and Table 3 for the figures for individual cities and metropolitan areas, and for six other states or geographic areas.)

Lawyers with Disabilities

The directory also collects information about lawyers with disabilities, though this information is much less widely reported than information on race/ethnicity and gender, making it much harder to say anything definitive about the representation of lawyers with disabilities. The information that is available suggests that partners with disabilities (of any race or gender) are scarce, with about one-third of 1 percent of partners reported as having a disability in the three most recent years; however these figures are higher than the less than one-quarter of one percent figures for the two years prior to that (2010 and 2011.) Similarly, associates with disabilities account for a tiny fraction, just 0.28%, of associates in law firms, but again this figure, along with the 2012 and 2013 figures of 0.24% and 0.26%, respectively, are higher than in the previous two years. Although the presence of individuals with disabilities among law school graduates is not precisely known, other NALP research suggests that between 1 and 2% of graduates self-identify as having a disability. Disability figures for partners, associates, and all attorneys with disabilities are reported in Table 4.

Breadth of Lawyer Representation in the NALP Directory

The 2014-2015 NDLE includes attorney race/ethnicity and gender information for over 111,000 partners, associates, and other lawyers in 1,056 offices, and for almost 6,300 summer associates in 758 offices nationwide. Information on disability status was reported for just over 73,000 of these lawyers. Table 1 presents national aggregate figures for the representation of women and racial/ethnic minorities among partners and associates at law firms for 2009-2014. Table 2 presents the most recent findings on the representation of women and racial/ethnic minorities among partners and associates at law firms. Table 3 presents analogous information for summer associates and for all lawyers. For purposes of the figures in these three tables, minority attorneys include those whose race or ethnicity is Black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and those of multi-racial heritage, as reported by the law firms in the NDLE. The partner numbers include both equity and non-equity partners. Table 4 provides information on lawyers with disabilities; because of the small numbers involved, only nationwide figures are presented.

The 2014-2015 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, which provides the individual firm listings on which these aggregate analyses are based, is available online at www.nalpdirectory.com.

Table 1. Women and Minorities at Law Firms — 2009-2014

Table 2. Women and Minorities at Law Firms — Partners and Associates — 2014

Source: The 2014-2015 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Some city information includes one or more offices in adjacent suburbs. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Los Angeles area includes offices in Santa Monica. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Roseland, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Short Hills, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tyson’s Corner, Reston, and Alexandria. State figures exclude cities reported separately. For multi-office firms that reported only firmwide figures, the information was attributed to the reporting city if at least 60% of the firms lawyers are in that city.

Table 3. Women and Minorities at Law Firms — Total Lawyers and Summer Associates — 2014

Source: The 2014-2015 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. Some city information includes one or more offices in adjacent suburbs. Orange County includes offices in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Newport Beach. The San Jose area includes offices in Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Los Angeles area includes offices in Santa Monica. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Roseland, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Short Hills, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tyson’s Corner, Reston, and Alexandria. State figures exclude cities reported separately. For multi-office firms that reported only firmwide figures, the information was attributed to the reporting city if at least 60% of the firms lawyers are in that city.

Note: The number of offices reporting one or more summer associates, including demographic information, was 758. Dashes in the summer associates columns indicate that fewer than five offices in that city reported summer associates, including the appropriate demographic information, or that the total number of summer associates with demographic information reported was less than ten.

Table 4. Reporting of Lawyers with Disabilities — 2014

Note: Figures for lawyers with disabilities are based on 740 offices/firms reporting counts, including zero, in all lawyer categories. Counts of individuals with disabilities, including zero, cover 73,081 lawyers. Because so few summer associates with disabilities were reported (7 total), they are not included in the table.

About NALP: NALP is an association of over 2,500 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond. What brings NALP members together is a common belief in three fundamental things. First, all law students and lawyers should benefit from a fair and ethical hiring process. Second, law students and lawyers are more successful when supported by professional development and legal career professionals. Third, a diverse and inclusive legal profession best serves clients and our communities. That’s why NALP members work together every day to collect and publish accurate legal employment data and information, and champion education and standards for recruiting, professional and career development, and diversity and inclusion. For more than 40 years, NALP has played an essential role in the success of our members and the lawyers and law students they serve.

NALP maintains an online archive of press releases at . For additional information about NALP research, contact Judith Collins, Director of Research, or James G. Leipold, Executive Director, at 202-835-1001. Mailing address: National Association for Law Placement, 1220 19th Street NW, Suite 401, Washington, DC 20036-2405.