Sullivan & Cromwell’s New Partners: Impressive, Yes; Diverse, Not So Much

In my mind, here’s the Holy Trinity of high-powered Biglaw firms: Cravath, Wachtell Lipton, and Sullivan & Cromwell. These firms aren’t the three most profitable, the three oldest (Wachtell is actually quite young), or even the three most prestigious (Skadden edges out S&C in the most recent Vault rankings). But for whatever reason — maybe prestige over a longer period of time, maybe their reputations for intensity and long hours (they’re not “lifestyle” firms), maybe a combination of prestige, profits, and overall excellence — I see these three firms as sitting at the pinnacle of Biglaw.

While renowned for their prestige, profits, and professionalism, these three firms aren’t generally known for the diversity of their partnership ranks. But as we’ve reported, both Cravath and Wachtell made progress on this front in their most recent partner classes. Cravath’s newest partner class consisted of three women, while Wachtell’s was made up of two women and an openly gay man.

Alas, Sullivan & Cromwell didn’t keep up with this pair of peer firms, at least not this year. From upset sources at S&C:

• “All white men elected partners at S&C.”
• “Five new partners at S&C. All white men. Management saying they can’t find qualified women. New York litigation particularly bad….”

Yes, it’s true. Flip to the next page for the announcement from chairman Joseph Shenker and for short bios of the five, who will become partners as of January 1, 2017.

Congratulations to them; as you can see, they’re an impressive group. They might lack racial, ethnic, or gender diversity, but they do cover a wide range of practice areas — General Practice (S&C-speak for Corporate), Antitrust, and Litigation (one general commercial litigator, and one appellate and Supreme Court litigator). And they boast geographic diversity: two from D.C., one from New York, one from London, and one from Sydney.

The lack of diversity in this new partner class is disappointing. Even Cleary Gottlieb — whose managing partner told us makes “no excuses” regarding diversity, and “must do better” — had one woman in its partner class of eight.

What can be said in Sullivan & Cromwell’s defense? A source at the firm pointed out to us that this class is a bit of an aberration. Looking at the broader time period of the past ten years, from 2008 through 2017, S&C has elected 61 lawyers to partner. Of those 61, 16 were women and 13 were diverse (African American, Asian American, Latino, and LGBT). In percentage terms, that’s 26 percent women and 21 percent diverse lawyers. Furthermore, of the 13 members of S&C’s senior-most executive committee, three are women and five are diverse. So women and minorities are represented both in the firm’s overall partnership and in the highest ranks of leadership.

(This source also disagreed with the claim that New York litigation is especially weak on gender diversity. Of the six women litigators made partner in the ten-year period, three are based in New York.)

While these numbers could be better, and S&C continually strives to strengthen diversity, focusing just on the most recent partnership class is misleading, said our source. “If you look at our peers, the top 10 Vault firms, we have a high degree of confidence that we are within range of all of them.”

So how do the top law firms fare when it comes to the diversity of their new partner classes? If you have information to share with us, please email us (subject line: “Diversity at [Firm Name]”).

Congrats again to the five fine lawyers who just made partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. Any institutional issues that the firm might have with diversity should not overshadow their track records of accomplishment and the achievement of making partner at S&C.

P.S. If you’re interested in gender diversity in the legal profession, please check out our Law Firm Gender Diversity Index.

(Flip to the next page for Joe Shenker’s announcement and bios of the five incoming partners.)

Earlier: Law Firm Gender Diversity Index
Wachtell Lipton’s New Partners: 100 Percent Diverse
Cravath Names New Partners — And All Three Are Women
Cleary Gottlieb’s New Partner Class: Where Are The Women?
Tracking 10 Years Of Women’s Progress In The Legal Profession

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David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].