Women, Minority Law Firm Gains Dampened by Litigation Threat (1)

As women and minorities posted their biggest gains in law office representation last year, diversity advocates said firm worries about lawsuits after last year’s US Supreme Court decision threaten progress.

“Too often the conversation seems to be shifting from ‘We need to do better,’ to ‘How do we keep from getting sued?’” said Lauren Stiller Rikleen, president of Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership, which consults law firms on diversity issues. “The Harvard case cannot be an excuse for results that should have been vastly improved years ago.”

Women make up more than 50% of law firm associates, the first time they achieved that threshold in the 32 years the National Association of Law Placement has been tracking the data, according to a report the group issued Tuesday. Associates of color made up over 30% of firm’s associate classes last year, a 1.8 percentage point boost, the largest year-over-year increase NALP has measured for the group.

“We are making progress, but it’s a fragile progress in light of what we’re seeing going on in the larger society,” said Nikia Gray, NALP’s executive director.

The report based on surveys of 812 US law offices shows that while firms are seeing their most diverse workforces in three decades, their progress remains “excruciatingly slow.” The percentage of summer associates of color declined for the first time since 2017, though it is still 10 points higher than recorded rates from six years ago, the report said.

While NALP’s report documented progress in the lower ranks, Black and Latina women each accounted for just 1% of all partners. “Women and people of color remain significantly underrepresented within the partnership ranks,” NALP said.

But as firms move forward with diversity efforts, they have faced criticism—and in some instances lawsuits—from conservative groups after the Supreme Court last year struck down Harvard University’s race-based admissions policy. The American Alliance for Equal Rights filed lawsuits against some of the country’s most elite firms, including Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster.

The suits alleged that the firms’ diversity programs discriminated against straight, white men. The alliance withdrew the suits after firms removed mentions of race or gender in their programs’ eligibility criteria. Other firms quietly made similar changes to their criteria out of fear of being the next lawsuit target.

Law firms and other private employers are waiting to see how the latest anti-DEI workplace sentiments impact their talent pipeline and overall diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, said Alexis Robertson, director of DEI at Foley & Lardner.

“We are in a moment of a chilling effect,” Robertson said. “Firms are unsure what they can or can’t still do to make progress on their DEI efforts.”

Law firms’ investment in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is crucial amid the backlash, said Dru Levasseur, director of DEI at the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation.

“Now is the time more than ever that law firms should be putting more money into it because we have this need and we’ve identified it,” Levasseur said. “This is not the time for law firms to find an excuse to be rolling things back.”

Corey Singer, a partner at Los Angeles-founded firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, said it’s crucial for firms to have representation at higher levels as well as in the lower ranks. “There is certainly a top-down impact that can have,” Singer, who identifies with the LGBTQ community, said of diversity.

While progress may be slower than some might like, firms are making the necessary strides on DEI issues, according to Karlie Ilaria Garcia, who was Paul Hastings’ DEI global director for nearly a decade. “It’s becoming more progressive, more sophisticated and more embedded,” Ilaria-Garcia said.