NALP Bulletin, January 2011

In a November 4, 2010 press release, NALP reported that the representation of women and minority lawyers among law firm associates declined between 2009 and 2010, likely a casualty of massive lawyer layoffs during the 2008-2009 recession. As NALP Executive Director James Leipold noted in that release, the actual drop in the representation of women and minorities was quite small and occurred only among associates, not partners, but the decrease is still of significance because it represents the reversal of what had been, up until 2010, a constant upward trend.

Aggregate statistics about the representation of women and minority lawyers at law firms do not tell the whole story, however. For instance, among all employers listed in the 2010-2011 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, just over 6% of partners were minorities and 1.95% of partners were minority women, and yet many offices reported no minority partners at all. In addition, the representation of minorities by specific race and ethnicity varies considerably by size of law firm and geography. Moreover, the drop in minority representation among associates was not uniform across specific racial/ethnic groups. This article takes a closer look at the representation of specific minority groups at the partnership and associate levels.

Overall, minority groups are relatively equally represented at the partner level (Table 1). (The term minorities as used here includes lawyers identified as Black, 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.) Differences are evident, however, depending on the size of the firm. For example, the presence of Black and Hispanic partners increases with firm size, whereas Asian partners are most prevalent at the smaller and largest firms. Percentages of female minority partners are generally highest in the largest firms, although for Asian women percentages at the smallest and largest firms are nearly identical.

At the city level, the presence of Black partners is highest in Atlanta, followed by Washington, DC, Baltimore, and New Orleans. The presence of Black female partners exceeds 1% in just four cities: Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach, Miami, and Washington, DC. Black partners account for less than 0.5% of partners in Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Orange County, CA, and San Diego.

Over half of minority partners in Austin, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach, Phoenix, and Tampa/St. Petersburg are Hispanic. In each of these cities, the presence of female Hispanic partners is also above average. Conversely, in nine of the 43 cities listed, fewer than 0.5% of partners are Hispanic. Asian partners are most common in the Los Angeles and Orange County, CA areas, and in the San Francisco and San Jose areas. Asian women are most frequent in these same cities, as well as in Sacramento.

Among associates, Asians account for almost half of all minority associates at the national level, and in the smallest and largest firms. Comparing these 2010 figures with those from 2009 shows that the overall decline in minority representation from 19.67% in 2009 to 19.53% in 2010 (as reported in the November 4, 2010 press release cited above) occurred primarily among Blacks, and to a lesser extent, Hispanics. Thus, the percentage of Black associates declined from 4.66% in 2009 to 4.36% in 2010; for Hispanic associates, the percentages declined from 3.89% to 3.81%. Representation of Asians among associates, in contrast, increased a bit, from 9.28% to 9.39%.

As is the case with partners, cities vary a great deal on these measures (Table 2). For example, Black associates are most common by far in Atlanta, followed by Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach, and Nashville. In each of these cities, except Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach, Blacks account for over half of minority associates. The percentage of Black female associates was also highest in these cities, along with New Orleans and Washington, DC. Every city reported at least some Black associates and Black female associates. The pattern for Hispanic associates is similar to that at the partner level, with representation highest by far in Miami, followed by Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach, and Austin. Percentage representation was less than 1% in several cities. The leading cities for Asian associates — both overall and for women specifically — are San Francisco, followed by the San Jose area, the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, New York City, and Seattle. Every city reported at least some Asian associates.

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 just over 6% of partners as a whole are minorities does not mean that minorities make up 6% of partners at each of the 1,400 offices and firms represented in the 2010 Directory. In fact, as Table 3 shows, about 30% of the offices/firms reported no minority partners, and 57% reported no minority women partners. Both of these figures are better at the largest firms, and most offices — 90% — report at least one woman partner, but less than half — about 46% — have more than the average 19% of women partners.

Likewise, almost 16% of offices/firms have no minority associates, and 42% exceed the average figures of about 19%. (See Table 4.) About 25% of offices reported no minority women associates. In each case, small firms are most likely to have no minority associates and the largest firms least likely to have no minority associates. However, firms of 501-700 lawyers are most similar to the smallest firms on these measures. About one-third of offices reported that more than half of associates were women.

Table 1. Partner Demographics at Law Firms — 2010

Source: The 2010-2011 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. 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 Cupertino, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Short Hills, Roseland, West Orange, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Parsippany, Westfield, Bridgewater, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tysons Corner, Reston, Vienna, and Alexandria. The few Native American, Native Hawaiian, and multi-racial lawyers reported are included in the overall minority percentages but are not reported separately. For multi-office firms that reported only firmwide figures, the information was attributed to the reporting city if at least 60% of the firms lawyers are in that city.

Table 2. Associate Demographics at Law Firms — 2010

Source: The 2010-2011 NALP Directory of Legal Employers. 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 Cupertino, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto and E. Palo Alto, Redwood Shores/Redwood City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. The Northern New Jersey/Newark area includes offices in Newark, Short Hills, Roseland, West Orange, Florham Park, Hackensack, Morristown, Parsippany, Westfield, Bridgewater, and Woodbridge. Northern Virginia includes offices in Falls Church, McLean/Tysons Corner, Reston, Vienna, and Alexandria. The few Native American, Native Hawaiian and multi-racial lawyers reported are included in the overall minority percentages but are not reported separately. For multi-office firms that reported only firmwide figures, the information was attributed to the reporting city if at least 60% of the firms lawyers are in that city.

Table 3. Representation of Women and Minorities Among Law Firm Partners — 2010
(percent of offices in each range of representation)

Table 4. Representation of Women and Minorities Among Law Firm Associates — 2010
(percent of offices in each range of representation)