There’s lots of interesting data in Am Law’s latest edition of the Midlevel Satisfaction Survey, but one detail, while illuminating isn’t actually surprising (indeed, it’s a familiar story). It turns out women and minority associates are less satisfied in their Biglaw careers than their peers.
As Am Law reports, minority attorneys scored their satisfaction levels lower in every category the survey asked about:
The most dramatic difference was in [minority associate’s] expectation to stay two years or more at their current firm—the average score was 4.181 for white associates and 4.072 for minority associates.
Other discrepancies of note between minority and white attorneys were in partner relations (4.478 for whites and 4.381 for minorities), billables policy (4.227 for whites and 4.131 for minorities) and overall workplace rating (4.428 for whites and 4.340 for minorities).
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Women who are still in Biglaw as midlevels also report less job satisfaction:
For female attorneys, the discrepancies were even greater in certain categories. Women on average gave a satisfaction score of 4.115 for their firms’ billable hours policy, while men rated them 4.267 on average. The average overall workplace rating was 4.339 for women and 4.453 for men. And communication about partnership was rated 3.689 by women and 3.789 by men.
Though the difference may seem small, there is a significant impact on the morale of associates and firms’ ability to retain talented, diverse associates. Keeping women and minority associates is essential for Biglaw firms that want to do better when it comes to diversity. Figuring out how to bridge that gap may seem challenging, but it is something that can be done, if firms prioritize it. Or, as one anonymous respondent said on the survey, they can just “not be racist and sexist.”
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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).