Tagged: law firms

“Despite more than a decade of New York law firms pledging to enhance diversity in their ranks, minority representation within associate and partners levels stalled last year, and attrition rates for female and minority attorneys remained disproportionately high, according to new survey results. The New York City Bar Association’s latest diversity benchmarking report paints a picture of continuing challenges but some gains, including increased representation of women and minority attorneys in leadership roles. While the evidence suggests improvements in minority and women representation over the past decade, it’s ‘at a rate of progress that is disappointingly slow,’ said city bar president John Kiernan, a Debevoise & Plimpton partner…While only 44 percent of current associates are white men, they make up 75 percent of current partners. About 26 percent of associates are racial and ethnic minorities compared to 8 percent of partners.”

Check out the graphs provided from the New York City Bar Association’s 2015 Diversity Benchmarking Report:

nycba-survey-women-partners
nycba-survey-minority-attorneys

Source: Christine Simmons. “Minority Representation in NYC Law Firms Stalls, Bar Survey Shows.” New York Law Journal. October 17, 2016. http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202770029605/Minority-Representation-in-NYC-Law-Firms-Stalls-Bar-Survey-Shows.

“Change is most quickly accomplished when we critically evaluate our existing systems and upend those that result in disparate outcomes. Start by taking some time to consider whether you harbor any implicit biases. You might consider taking an implicit bias test, such as the ones offered by Harvard University’s Project Implicit (https://implicit.harvard.edu). The process can be extremely uncomfortable and the natural reaction to the results is often denial and anger. Unwittingly, however, all of us harbor implicit biases, and understanding those biases personally is an important first step in assessing why we react to different people in different ways.Next, look carefully at your hiring, evaluation, assignment and promotion practices. Are these processes open, transparent, uniformly applied and inclusive, involving a group of diverse decision makers? Have the outcomes historically favored some groups over others? Is the same process applied to all candidates, or do some receive certain advantages?Consider your mentorship systems. Are mentors and mentees allowed to self-select, or are mentors assigned, and evaluated on the quality of their supervision and mentorship as comprehensively as the mentee? Are favorable and prominent work assignments limited to a few ‘go-to’ attorneys, or could they be more equally shared to give others a chance to shine?”

Source: “Editorial: Implicit Racial Bias Stands in Way of Truly Diverse Bar.” Connecticut Law Tribune. November 23, 2015.

“Lawyers and academics, who pride themselves on rationality and objectivity, are still prone to subconscious and unwitting manifestations of bias. While we have taken meaningful steps to eradicate overt racism within our profession, implicit bias manifests itself in more innocuous ways, and in many respects, has simply become part of our professional culture.”

Source: “Editorial: Implicit Racial Bias Stands in Way of Truly Diverse Bar.” Connecticut Law Tribune. November 23, 2015.

“What if the problem starts earlier? What if each step of the process that allows the majority to progress toward a successful career in the law is affected by the same implicit biases? In a 2014 study, researchers wrote an identical email to 6,500 professors, randomly selected from 259 American universities. The emails were sent from ‘out-of-town students’ expressing interest in the professor’s doctorate program, seeking guidance, and asking to meet. The emails were identical, varying only in the name of the sender. The researchers used names that research had demonstrated were perceived as belonging white, black, Hispanic, Indian or Chinese students.While professors’ response rates were generally high, with 67 percent responding and 59 percent offering to meet with the student, the professors were consistently more responsive to white males than to female or minority students. Asians, traditionally associated with the ‘model minority’ myth, actually received the lowest rates of response. This bias was most severe in disciplines paying higher faculty salaries and at private universities. To the extent that law schools are affected by the same problems, we may better understand how minority students are disadvantaged at certain gateway points, resulting in a sequential filtering process that consistently favors the majority.”

Source: “Editorial: Implicit Racial Bias Stands in Way of Truly Diverse Bar.” Connecticut Law Tribune. November 23, 2015.