America's Most Diverse Big Firms

California law firms dominate the top of this year's Diversity Scorecard from the Minority Law Journal (MLJ). Seven of the eleven firms with the nation's highest percentage of minority attorneys are California based. When the rankings are weighted to take into account minorities who make partner, the state does even better. Six of the seven most diverse firms in the United States are from California, topped by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Townsend and Townsend and Crew; and Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard & Smith.

For the annual scorecard, MLJ surveyed 252 of the country's largest and highest-grossing firms. Rankings are based on responses from only the 210 firms that reported ethnicity data.

Overall, the share of minority lawyers at large American firms is rising, but only slightly: from 13.4 percent in 2007 to 13.9 percent in 2008. By comparison, in each of the three previous years the proportion of minority lawyers at big firms rose by a full percentage point, according to MLJ. The share of minority partners, meanwhile, also crept up: from 6.2 percent in 2007 to 6.6 percent in 2008.

U.S. Diversity Rankings of California Firms

With partners and non-partners counted equally

1 Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith

2 Fenwick & West

3 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

6 Morrison & Foerster

7 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

8 Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear

10 Townsend and Townsend and Crew
(tied with Davis Polk & Wardell of New York)

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