ABA Pushes Big Law on Diversity With Recruiting Guidance

The American Bar Association’s push to boost diversity by having law firms look beyond grade point average and class rank is a challenge for laggards to act.

“Law firms are actually aware” of the need to go beyond GPA and class rank, said Nikia Gray, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. “Their recruiting departments are probably pretty well educated on this already. It’s more of a matter of convincing partners.”

The ABA said in its Aug. 7 report that “by urging law firms to adopt a holistic evaluation approach that looks beyond GPA and class rank, the ...