Biglaw, Minority Issues, Women's Issues

NYC Bar Report Reveals Minorities Have A 60% Higher Attrition Rate; Asian Attorneys Leaving At An Alarming Rate

The report contains fascinating data and some bright spots as well.

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Asian woman lawyer law firm associate“Yeah, I’m out that Brooklyn, now I’m down in Tribeca / Right next to DeNiro, but I’ll be hood forever / I’m the new Sinatra, and since I made it here / I can make it anywhere, yeah, they love me everywhere.” — Jay Z

This week, the New York City (City) Bar published its latest Diversity Benchmarking Report. There were several notable bright spots in the report; however, women and minorities still face around a 50% higher voluntary attrition rate than white men.

According to the report, this attrition rate continues to disproportionately impact minority and women attorneys, with 18.4% of women and 20.8% of minorities leaving signatory firms in 2015 — a slight decrease from 2014, but still well above the 12.9% rate for white men. This equates to a 42% and 61% higher voluntary attrition rate for women and minorities, respectively.

For the first time, the City Bar’s 2015 benchmarking survey provided detailed data on the racial/ethnic makeup of attorneys who left each signatory firm. Of all reported attorneys, 12% of attorneys who left firms were Asian/Pacific Islander, 4% Black/African American, and 5% Hispanic. In a previous column, I noted that Asian students also had the largest drop in law school enrollment – 16%. If you are attending this year’s National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Convention in San Diego, I’d love to connect with you and talk about these statistics.

The 2015 Diversity Benchmarking Report is unique, and more robust than previous reports, for two reasons:

First, participation in the survey was mandatory in order to be listed as a signatory to the City Bar Statement of Diversity Principles. As a result, signatory law firm participation in the survey nearly doubled, thus providing robust data not available in 2014 and a more accurate reflection of our signatory firms. We applaud the 75 law firms that have committed the time and energy to participate.

Additionally, for the first time since we began administering the survey in 2004, we requested a breakdown of individual racial/ethnic groups for men and women, rather than data on ‘minority attorneys’ as an aggregate. This important change allows us to report specific details in each category where representative data was collected. We believe this specificity will allow the firms to explore challenges in a more nuanced way and create solutions tailored to a diverse population of lawyers.

Admittedly, while the numbers are not optimal, there are still several positive trends:

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  • LGBT attorney representation has more than doubled since the City Bar began collecting self-reported data in 2004, and representation of LGBT partners has increased from 1.4% to 2.4%;
  • women showed notable gains in representation on firm management committees and among practice group heads, and women partners peaked at 19% (however, white women make up 85% of all women partners, and minority women make up less than 3% of all partners in signatory firms);
  • although representation of minority attorneys overall remains relatively flat, representation at the Special Counsel level increased, as well as minority representation in leadership bodies; and
  • the percentage of minority management committee members and minority practice group heads increased, and the percentage of law firms with three or more minority attorneys on the management committee doubled from 7% in 2014 to 14% in 2015.

The report also highlighted renewed efforts by law firms to retain and promote minority attorneys, including:

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  • engaging practice group leaders in monitoring work allocation protocols and quality of assignments;
  • intentional pairing of partners and associates, where a partner is responsible for the associate’s development;
  • training partners to understand and interrupt implicit bias and develop objective evaluation and feedback methods;
  • assessing client team composition and product on the firm’s most significant matters; and
  • providing associates with executive coaches.

According to the report, one in four signatory firms has no women on its management committee, and one in eight firms has no women practice group leaders. Three in five signatory firms have no racial/ethnic minorities on its management committee, and one in three firms has no minority practice group leaders.

Hopefully, these ratios will improve over the coming years. If these top-level structures do not evolve, it’s hard to imagine overall numbers in these firms dramatically improving.

Kudos to the City Bar and its signatory firms for providing the legal profession with such illuminating research. The 2015 Diversity Benchmarking Report is a must-read for anyone seeking to improve diversity in their firms, especially if you are a diversity chair, member of a diversity council/committee, or designated diversity professional.

Diversity Benchmarking Report 2015 [New York City Bar]

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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