NALP Bulletin, February 2017

In a January 2017 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms, NALP noted that women and Black/African-Americans made small gains in representation at major U.S. law firms in 2016 compared with 2015. However, representation of both these groups remains below 2009 levels. Although women and minorities continue to make small gains in their representation among law firm partners in 2016, the overall percentage of women associates has decreased more often than not since 2009, and the percentage of African-American associates has declined every year since 2009, except for a small increase in 2016.

The report provides additional figures to show that aggregate statistics about the representation of women and minority attorneys at law firms do not tell the whole story, and some of those findings, as well as some new findings, are presented here.

For instance, among all employers listed in the 2016-2017 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, just 8.05% of partners were minorities and 2.76% of partners were minority women. Moreover, many offices report no minority partners at all. And notably, although the most recent information shows that minority representation among associates as a whole has increased for six years in a row after declining from 2009 to 2010, a more detailed look reveals that much of the increase has been and can continue to be attributed to an increase in Asian associates. Meanwhile, representation of Blacks/African-Americans among associates slid every year from 2010 to 2015 and remains below its 2009 level despite a small increase to 4.11% in 2016. Asians account for half of minority associates, and Hispanics have outnumbered Blacks/African-Americans in the associate ranks since 2014.

Of the four categories of lawyers tracked in the directory, minorities in general and minority women specifically are most common by far among associates and non-traditional track/staff attorneys — hereafter referred to as staff attorneys. (The term minorities as used here includes lawyers identified as Black/African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and multi-racial. The very few Native American, Native Hawaiian, and multi-racial lawyers are not reported out separately.) Minorities accounted for 22.72% of associates and over 20% of staff attorneys. Figures for minority women were about 12.4% and 13.1%, respectively. But representation of Black/African-Americans and Black/African-American women specifically among staff attorneys is down from 2015. Representation of Black/African-Americans among staff attorneys fell by three-fifths of a percentage point, whereas figures for Asians and Hispanics were up. In fact, the 2015 figures in turn were down from 2014, when Black/African-Americans accounted for about 6.5% of staff attorneys. A change in the categories effective in 2014 precludes direct comparison with prior years, but a look at the most comparable figures for 2012 and 2013 — combining the "staff attorney" and "other attorney" categories used then — suggests that 2014 was high, at least in this time period. The "counsel" category falls in between the lows for partners and the highs for associates and staff attorneys, but more closely resembles partners in this regard. The racial/ethnic makeup differs quite noticeably across these categories of lawyers. Though Asians are most prevalent across all categories, the degree to which they outnumber other racial/ethnic groups varies, with the largest differences among associates, where Asians outnumber Blacks/African-Americans by almost 3 to 1. Representation of Blacks/African-Americans specifically is highest by far among staff attorneys, at 5.12%, compared with 4.11% of associates and about 1.8% of partners and counsel. Among Hispanics figures range from 5.09% of staff attorneys to over 2% of partners and counsel. (See Table 1.)

Additional information by firm size for partners and associates is shown in Tables 2 and 3. Asians are somewhat more prevalent than either Blacks/African-Americans or Hispanics among partners and associates. Differences are evident depending on the size of the firm. For example, the presence of Hispanic partners and associates generally increases with firm size, whereas among Blacks/African-American partners and associates that progress stalls at firms of 501-700 lawyers. Among associates, Asians account for half of minority associates at the national level, and over half in the largest firms. (See Table 2 and Table 3.)

As might be expected, these figures vary greatly by city. For example, among larger cities — those with 500 or more partners represented in the directory — Black/African-American associates and partners are most common in Atlanta, Detroit, and Washington, DC, while Asian associates and partners are most common in Los Angeles, Orange County, CA, San Francisco, and the San Jose area. Hispanics dominate the minority presence in Miami.

Additional insight on women and minorities at law firms comes from looking at the extent to which women and minorities are represented at each office, rather than for a city or for the nation as a whole. Thus, the fact that 8.05% of partners as a whole are minorities does not mean that minorities make up 8.05% of partners at each of the almost 1,100 offices and firms represented in the directory. In fact, over 18% of offices reported no minority partners, and almost 45% reported no minority women partners. Likewise, almost 10% of offices/firms have no minority associates, and almost one in five reported no minority women associates. Offices in firms of 701+ lawyers fare better on these measures at 6.0% and 15.6%, respectively. Just 27.6% of offices reported that more than half of associates were women. (See Table 4 and Table 5.) Notably, the percentage of offices with no minority partners decreased by more than one percentage point, and the percentages of offices with no minority associates or no minority women associates were down by 2 and 3 percentage points, respectively. Also, compared with the 51.3% of offices where fewer than 45% of associates were women in 2015, the figure for 2016 was lower. That is, the percentage of offices where fewer than 45% of associates were women decreased in 2016 compared with 2015. This is in contrast to 2015 compared with 2014, when these percentages moved in the opposite direction — that is, the prevalence of less representation of women and minorities among associates increased. For example, the percentage of offices with no minority associates increased from 10% in 2014 to 11.7% in 2015.

The source for Tables 1-5 is the 2016-2017 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. The January 2017 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms can be found here (PDF).

Table 1. Women and Minorities at Law Firms in 2016 — Nationwide by Type of Attorney

Figures are based on 1,082 offices/firms covering a total of 112,475 lawyers.

Table 2. Partner Demographics at Law Firms — 2016

Source: The 2016-2017 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. The few Native American, Native Hawaiian, and multi-racial lawyers reported are included in the overall minority percentages but are not reported separately. 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, and San Jose. The Los Angeles area includes offices in Santa Monica and Long Beach. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Roseland, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, and Westfield. Northern Virginia includes offices in Alexandria, McLean/Tyson’s Corner, and Reston.

Table 3. Associate Demographics at Law Firms — 2016

Source: The 2016-2017 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. The few Native American, Native Hawaiian, and multi-racial lawyers reported are included in the overall minority percentages but are not reported separately. 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, and San Jose. The Los Angeles area includes offices in Santa Monica and Long Beach. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Roseland, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, and Westfield. Northern Virginia includes offices in Alexandria, McLean/Tyson’s Corner, and Reston.

Table 4. Representation of Women and Minorities Among Law Firm Partners — 2016
(percent of offices in each range of representation)

Table 5. Representation of Women and Minorities Among Law Firm Associates — 2016
(percent of offices in each range of representation)