National Jurist - February 2008 - (Page 13) THEFIRMREPORT partners are most prevalent at smaller and at the largest firms. The percentage of African-American partners is highest in Atlanta, Baltimore and Detroit. Most minority partners are Hispanic in Austin, Texas; Miami, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla. Among associates, Asians account for about half of all minorities at the national level and at every firm size. As is the case with partners, there is a wide variance in the number of minorities by cities. Additional insight on minorities at law firms comes from examining the extent to which women and minorities are represented at each office rather than for a city or for the entire nation. For instance, even though just over 5 percent of partners at the more than 1,500 offices included in the directory are minorities, over one-third of the firms reported no minority partners, the study showed. Likewise, 19 percent of offices or firms have no minority associates, however, 40 percent of offices exceed the overall average of about 18 percent minorities. According to the American Bar Association, the percentage of minority law school graduates has more than doubled since the late 1980s, from 10 percent to 23 percent. During the same period, the presence of women among law school graduates has grown from 40 percent to nearly half. With an increase from 23.05 percent in 2006 to 24.19 percent in 2007, minority representation in summer programs slightly exceeded the representation among law students for the third year in a row. “This suggests to me that law firms are doing a very good job on the front end, recruiting women and minorities into their summer programs,” said James Leipold, executive director of NALP. “But what these numbers confirm is what many other studies have shown, that women and minorities leave their law firm jobs at a higher rate than their male and nonminority colleagues.” He said the change in diversity of law firm leadership is slow overall. The real challenge in making more rapid change is improving the retention of female and minority lawyers, Leipold said. According to the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity through the American Bar Association, minority representation in the legal profession is significantly lower than in most other professions. Overall, the commission says that minorities in general continue to face significant obstacles to “full and equal” participation in the legal profession. “When making initial employment decisions, law firms tend to be quicker to question minorities’ academic credentials than whites,” the commission report said. “Minorities in law firms continue to suffer from a lack of access to clients and business networks outside of the firm. Among partners, minorities continue to be clustered at the bottom of the firm’s financial and status pecking order.” Representation of minorities 2007 Demographics at law firms 2007 Partners Size of firm none up to 5% more than 5% Partners Size of firm Total % minority % Asian % African -American % Hispanic Total 50 or fewer 51-100 101-250 251-500 501-700 700+ 35.80% 63% 34.80% 31.00% 44.00% 31.50% 23.30% 24% 8.40% 32.30% 40.00% 19.60% 21.90% 20.60% 40.10% 28.40% 32.90% 29.00% 36.50% 46.60% 56.10% Total 50 or fewer 51-100 101-250 251-500 501-700 701+ 61,297 2,501 5,501 15,754 13,719 7,159 16,663 5.40% 4.48% 5% 4.16% 4.95% 5.96% 6.92% 1.94% 1.84% 2.62% 1.35% 1.30% 2.26% 2.68% 1.64% 0.68% 1.00% 1.37% 1.84% 1.97% 1.95% 1.56% 1.64% 1.05% 1.23% 1.55% 1.55% 2.05% Associates Size of firm none up to 5% more than 5% Associates Size of firm Total % minority % Asian % African -American % Hispanic Total 50 or fewer 51-100 101-250 251-500 501-700 700+ 19.40% 42.60% 18.60% 19% 28.20% 10.70% 6.80% 40.60% 28.40% 46.80% 50.30% 40.90% 37.10% 36.80% 40% 29.00% 34.60% 30.90% 30.90% 52.20% 56.40% Total 50 or fewer 51-100 101-250 251-500 501-700 701+ 60,715 1,810 3,716 10,780 12,275 9,009 23,125 18.07% 13.81% 13.67% 14.72% 15.62% 19.94% 21.25% 8.94% 6.63% 6.65% 6.44% 6.57% 11.08% 11.07% 4.65% 3.26% 3.26% 4.35% 5.07% 4.51% 5.00% 3.68% 3.04% 2.61% 3.16% 3.32% 3.51% 4.40% Source: NALP 2007-08 Directory of Legal Employers February 2008 THE NATIONAL JURIST 13
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