The Best Biglaw Firms For Minority Attorneys Who Want To Make Partner

As we mentioned earlier this week, while more than 30 percent of law students are minorities, only 15 percent of lawyers and less than 9 percent of partners are attorneys of color. In fact, the number of minority equity partners has only increased from 7.08 percent to 7.87 percent since 2015. Racial diversity in law firms seems to have effectively flatlined, leaving minority lawyers at a disadvantage. Making partner remains the gold standard, but with so few people of color having attained this achievement in Biglaw, it’s enough to make minority attorneys leave their firms in search of more fruitful endeavors with the government or in-house.

At some law firms, however, it’s a completely different story. At some law firms, minority attorneys are mentored, sponsored, and pushed to build networks that will allow them to receive an invitation to the equity partnership ranks.

In order to recognize the Biglaw firms that take special efforts to maintain a diverse partnership, for the first time ever, Law360 (sub. req.) has created a list of the top law firms for minority equity partners.

Law360 surveyed more than 300 firms for its 2017 Law Firm Diversity Snapshot, and those firms were then ranked based on the percentage of equity partners who self-identified as minorities. Law360 then went further, and broke the firms out into tiers depending on size for a peer-to-peer comparison.

In the biggest of Biglaw category (600+ attorneys), the top five firms are:

1. Wilson Sonsini: 20.3 percent
2. White & Case: 18.8 percent
3. Morrison & Foerster: 14.9 percent
4. Lewis Brisbois: 14.4 percent
5. Paul Weiss: 14.0 percent

For Biglaw firms with slightly smaller headcounts (300-599 attorneys), the best for minority partners are:

1. Fragomen Del Rey: 18.5 percent
2. Carlton Fields: 17.3 percent
3. Fenwick & West: 15.5 percent
4. Winstead: 11.5 percent
5. Cadwalader: 11.1 percent

For the smallest of Biglaw firms (150-299 attorneys), these are the best for lawyers of color:

1. Atkinson Andelson: 25.0 percent
2. Best Best: 20.0 percent
3. Hanson Bridgett: 19.4 percent
4. Sedgwick: 18.4 percent
5. Munger Tolles: 17.1 percent

Check out Law360 for rankings of the smallest law firms (20 to 149 attorneys).

Strategies for ensuring minority lawyers have a good shot at making partner differ from firm to firm, and include formal mentorship programs, business marketing workshops, and integration into the firm’s community at large. These measures have been met with success, but there is still a difficult road ahead.

Of those on the biggest of Biglaw list, Wilson Sonsini has the highest percentage of minority equity partners, at 20.3 percent. The rest of the ranked firms fail to break 20 percent minority equity partners — save for Atkinson Andelson, which assists its minority lawyers with their confidence building by allowing them to dive into client matters without supervision very early on in their careers — and these are the best of the best. While these firms should be applauded for their efforts to increase racial diversity, there is still much more work to be done.

The Top Firms For Minority Equity Partners [Law360 (sub. req.)]
The Best Firms For Minority Attorneys [Law360 (sub. req.)]
Law360’s 2017 Law Firm Diversity Snapshot [Law360 (sub. req.)]

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Staci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.