Diversity Declines

by Rene Ciria-Cruz

Diversity at law firms has become an apparent casualty of the economic downturn, according to analysis of the latest NALP Directory of Legal Employers. NALP, the legal career development organization, scrutinized data on about 129,000 lawyers at more than 785 U.S. law firms and found that the percentage of female and minority attorneys edged downward in 2010—the first decrease since the organization began collecting such data in the 1990s.

Minorities now constitute 12.4 percent of the attorney ranks, down from 12.59 percent in 2009. Women continue to make up nearly one-third, and 6.2 percent are minority women; both groups also saw decreases last year of less than a percentage point.

Despite the overall slip in diversity—which is most evident among associates—there were small gains at the partnership level for minority and female attorneys. But as a general matter, diversity falls off at the higher rungs of the law firm ladder. In 2010, for example, only 1.95 percent of minority women had partner status.

California, however, remains at the diversity forefront. Among the 43 metropolitan areas studied, San Francisco and Los Angeles law firms had the most diverse personnel.

---