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Clients With 'Black-Sounding Names' Are Another Consequence Of California's Low Bar Passage Rate

The underservice for black people gets worse in states with fewer lawyers.

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Yes, this was the whitest picture I could find for this topic. (Image via Getty)

I don’t want to get into what makes a “black name” or a “white name,” because I’ve had a “girl’s name” or a “Jewish name” my whole black-ass life. It is undeniable that people guess about the race and gender of a person based on their name, and while I can’t explain precisely what makes a name look one way or the other, it never hurts to note that Ohio Senator “Sherrod Brown” happens to be white.

In a fair and just world, ethnic naming conventions would just be a funny happenstance that had no real world effect. In our racist and unjust world, having a name that merely “sounds black” can lead to discrimination before anybody even meets you.

A study conducted by Yale University lecturer Brian Libgober revealed that in states with less legal competition, it’s hard for black-sounding clients to even get a lawyer to respond to their email. From the ABA Journal:

In the California study, Libgober used the names “Darnell Jackson” and “Latoya Jackson” to signal that a potential client was black, and he used the names “Brad McCarthy” and “Laurie McCarthy” to suggest that a potential client was white. The emails identified the sender as a medical sales representative and asked for representation in a DUI case.

Libgober sent the emails to two batches of 96 criminal defense lawyers who were certified in criminal law. When he combined findings from the two study batches, he found that clients with white-sounding names were receiving 50% more replies.

That’s just embarrassing, California. Darnell’s a good dude. I know him from around the way.

Libgober then did a version of his study in Florida, a state with many more lawyers per capita. Apparently, when lawyers gotta eat, they don’t care what color you “sound” like:

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In a follow-up study that he conducted in Florida, emails were sent to 899 small-firm lawyers seeking representation in either a criminal case involving a misdemeanor driving offense, a divorce, or a personal-injury matter. The lawyers were identified as black or white, and male or female.

The senders of the email were identified as “Latasha Francois,” “Tasha Dorsey,” “Terrance Williams,” “Maurice Henry” (all deemed to be black-sounding names, at varying levels), “Anthony Holley,” “Sam Nash,” “Nicole Horton” and “Tabitha Morgan” (the white-sounding names, in varying degrees).

Libgober found no evidence in the Florida study that lawyers were responding to clients at different rates based on perceived race.

I mean, Nikki Horton is a sista. Other than that, no concerns.

To be clear, black lawyers in each state DGAF what race they think you are. Only color that matters to them is green:

The only difference based on race related to the lawyers. Black lawyers responded more to every type of client than white lawyers.

So, there is a lot of racism exposed by this study, that we will not solve here today. But one of Libgober’s takeaways is that the more lawyers the better for black clients, and that is almost certainly true. It’s not just about authorizing more lawyers of color. It seems that the simple existence of more legal competition makes lawyers more willing to hunt for clients, regardless of race. California may think its stringent bar exam is helping raise the quality of legal services across the state, but it’s probably having the effect of making it harder for clients of color to find any kind of legal representation at all.

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In the meantime, lawyers, don’t be freaking stupid. Don’t judge a case by the race you think the potential client is. Trust me, you’re probably wrong anyway.

Would-be clients with white-sounding names got 50% more lawyer responses in California, report says [ABA Journal]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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