Labor & Employment » Big New York Law Firms Lag In Diversity

Big New York Law Firms Lag In Diversity

October 18, 2016

Young lawyers or law students standing together; isolated on white

The number of women and minorities at large New York City law firms “are not where they should be,” said John S. Kiernan, president of the New York City Bar Association. This year, law firms were required by the association to complete a benchmarking survey to give a better picture of their workforce. For the first time, that survey broke down employees by gender and ethnicity. About 75 firms responded to the survey, among them some of the nation’s “most profitable, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue from complex legal matters involving the country’s biggest corporations,” the New York Times writes. Women make up 19 percent of such firms’ partners, an increase from the previous year. But fewer women are working as associates, and minority women make up only 15 percent of all female partners at signatory firms, and less than three percent of partners overall. Firm partnerships overall remain more than 75 percent white male, with women at 20 percent and minorities at slightly over five percent. Lawyers departing the firms contributed to the disappointing numbers. Last year, just under 13 percent of white male lawyers left firms, compared to 18.4 percent of women and 20.8 percent of minorities. “Failure to attain equity, or owner, partnership – or the lack of prospects to become partner – appeared to have a significant effect on firm longevity,” the Times writes. “Salaried, or income, partners who were women or minorities had a turnover rate of 8.6 percent – double that of male equity partners, who left at a rate of 3.2 percent, according to the survey.”

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