Major law firms feel pressure to diversify their staffs for both moral and business reasons. While the economic downturn has reduced overall hiring, clients increasingly demand that their law firms provide statistics on diversity and assign minority attorneys. However, representation of minority attorneys in law firms remains low, at only 3.71% making partner. To improve diversity, firms focus on retention in addition to hiring, such as through mentorship programs and organizing attorneys into smaller practice groups. Leadership training also aims to determine the best strategies for increasing retention of minority attorneys long-term.

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Despite hits to hiring in general because of
the economic downturn, major law firms
across the country are under pressure to
continue efforts to diversify their legal staffs.
“There’s the case for doing it because it’s
the right thing to do, and then there is the
case that it is good for business,” said James
Bourne, president of the Indiana State Bar
Association. He has made increasing minor-
ity involvement a goal of his tenure.
“Our clients, especially large corporations,
are requiring the law firms they work with
to provide them with statistical information
and encouraging the assignment of minor-
ity attorneys to their matters,” said Alison
Dreizen, partner in charge of diversity at
White, Case in New York City.
That firm has about 1,600 attorneys, more
than half of them in offices outside the
United States.
The National Association for Law Place-
ment’s most recent study, released last fall,
showed that 3.71 percent of minority attorney
are partners in major law firms, an incre-
mental increase from the previous year.
“The profession has not achieved its goal to
have representation that equates to repre-
sentation in law school classes,” said Jerry
Nash, deputy director of NALP.
He pointed to the June Supreme Court deci-
sion affirming the University of Michigan
School of Law’s admission policy, saying the
focus on the front-end of admissions has a
direct impact on the output into the profes-
sion.
With larger numbers of minority law stu-
dents, “the hiring base is much broader,
giving us an available pool of talent that in-
evitably leads to a greater mix,” Dreizer said.
Cynthia-Clare Tagoe, a native of Ghana who
joined White, Case as an associate after she
received her J.D. from Case Western Reserve
University School of Law in 2001,said diver-
sity is welcomed at that firm.
“It takes all kinds to make what we do work,
in all legal markets around the world,” she
said.
Retaining attorneys of color is as crucial as
hiring them. At White, Case, a new program
randomly assigns a coach to every associate
to answer questions and guide their careers.
The firm organizes attorneys into small
practice areas.
“It’s harder to get lost in the crunch,”
Dreizen said.
Diversity training focused on law firms be-
gins this fall at the leadership level.
“Experimentation helps each firm determine
what is going to work best for them in reten-
tion,” Dreizen said.
Indiana’s Bourne was the driving force in a
recent Diversity Summit. Managing part-
ners from firms with 10 or more members,
managers of corporate and government legal
departments, deans of the state’s four law
schools and representatives of other bar
associations in the state, including the three
minority bar associations, attended.
Bourne’s goals are twofold: to increase the
minority representation in the state bar and
to encourage greater participation from
minority members who currently belong.
Acknowledging and embracing the difference
a minority person brings to the firm helps
make minority attorneys more comfortable
and get their careers on track, participants
heard. Having a mentor, whether a minority
or not, is important.
The economic downturn has reduced turn-
over as well as total hiring. Junior associates
are staying in their first jobs longer.
“Firms are focused on having their classes
be as representative as possible,” Dreizer
said. “It gives hope that in 10 or 15 years, we
won’t be talking about this subject.”
This story appeared in the September, 2003
edition of The National Jurist, www.nation-
aljurist.com
Law firms focus on minority hiring
[Christine Willard]
Moral, business interests raise awareness of differences.