White Men Not Lacking for Legal Jobs Despite DEI Suits’ Claims

The latest lawsuits filed by Edward Blum’s new action group take aim at diversity fellowships at prominent law firms Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster. The suits, which allege reverse discrimination against a White man who is (allegedly) ineligible for the fellowships, miss the point. There are still plenty of slots for White men at US law firms.

According to the National Association of Law Placement, White lawyers are over-represented today within law firm associate ranks based on their graduation rates, comprising nearly 72% of all associates at law firms while making up only 68% of law school graduates. By comparison, over 31% of graduates are people of color yet they represent only 28% of associates.

The discrepancy is even more acute at the partnership level, where over 88% of all partners are White and only 11% are people of color. In short, not only do White lawyers hold a disproportionate share of the jobs at law firms, they convert to partnership at greater rates than their diverse peers, meaning they have longer, more successful careers at law firms as well.

The progress law firms have made toward becoming more diverse and inclusive has also been painfully slow. In the 31 years that NALP has been tracking this data, the percentage of partners of color has increased by less than ten percentage points. To put that into perspective, at this dismal rate of progress, partners of color will still not reach parity with current graduation rates in another thirty years.

In fact, forget Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s hope in the 2003 decision Grutter v. Bollinger that affirmative action wouldn’t be necessary 25 years later: At the present rate of progress, lawyers of color won’t comprise more than 30% of law firm partners before the year 2090, almost a century after that decision.

Beyond law firm statistics, there are also the very real inequities faced by graduates of color in both employment outcomes and law school debt. Not only is the overall employment rate for White graduates significantly higher than for graduates of color, they’re also more likely to be employed in positions requiring a law license—a significant data point correlated to the quality of jobs obtained by those law school graduates.

NALP’s last employment study found that for the Class of 2021—a class that was favored by a red-hot job market—81% of White graduates obtained employment in positions requiring a law license yet only 66% of Black or African-American graduates were able to do the same.

At the same time, graduates of color carry a much higher student debt load. A recent joint study between NALP and the NALP Foundation showed that the educational debt level for lawyers of color three years after graduation was $123,336—significantly higher than the $85,397 carried by their White peers.

Most of this debt—83%—was attributable to law school alone. Thus, graduates of color get a double whammy. Not only are their job prospects poorer after graduation, but they also carry more debt than their White peers for the privilege of having gone to law school in the first place.

There’s no doubt that diversity fellowships, as a category, have raised a flurry of concerns from educators since their rise in popularity over the past few years. The applications for these fellowships sometimes employ essay prompts that encourage diverse students to share traumatic incidents of discrimination, which can retraumatize the students.

Further, the application period for many of these fellowships occurs early in a student’s 1L year, which puts additional pressure on students to seek out and apply for these highly competitive programs during a time when they are still transitioning to law school.

However, the inequities that these programs are intended to address are real and they will only be exacerbated if law firms take the path of least resistance in response to Blum’s lawsuits and back away from their diversity initiatives.

Finally, consider this: These lawsuits represent only one side of the debate raging over diversity initiatives. Just as far right groups are bringing lawsuits, so are far left groups, as are individuals.

Whether or not Perkins Coie’s and Morrison & Foerster’s fellowship programs are ultimately deemed lawful, the legal industry is not an equitable industry. Diverse students who attend law school don’t have the same career prospects after graduation as their White peers. Failure to address these issues isn’t only morally reprehensible, it’s equally likely to result in lawsuits.

By all means, employers should review all of their diversity initiatives to ensure compliance with recent changes in the law, but the answer to the current uproar isn’t to abandon the cause. Rather the answer is for law firms to recommit to their values and stand their ground. To that end, I find an old labor union slogan that has been frequently misquoted of late by various political factions to be particularly poignant: “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

The cases are American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Morrison & Foerster, S.D. Fla., No. 1:23-cv-23189, 8/22/23; and American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Perkins Coie, N.D. Tex., No. 3:23-cv-01877, 8/22/23.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Nikia Gray is the executive director of the National Association of Law Placement, an association of over 3,000 legal career professionals who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond.

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