NALP Findings No Cause for Concern – Yet

By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Late last year, The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) reported that the representation of women and minority lawyers among law firm associates declined between 2009 and 2010, most likely the result of the massive lawyer layoffs that took place during the recession. The findings made headlines across the country, though the actual drop in the representation of women and minorities was quite small and occurred mostly among associates, not partners.

Despite these facts, some newspapers reported that these findings were significant because they were the first diversity reversals in the NALP’s 17-year history and represent the reversal of what had been, up until 2010, a constant upward trend.

So, are these findings important or not? According to the NALP, aggregate statistics about the representation of women and minority lawyers at law firms do not tell the whole story. For example, among the employers listed in the 2010-2011 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, just over 6 percent of partners were minorities and 1.95 percent of partners were minority women, and yet many offices reported no minority partners at all. In addition, the representation of minorities by specific race and ethnicity varies considerably by size of law firm and geography. The NALP also found that the drop in minority representation among associates was not uniform across specific racial/ethnic groups, which also influenced their findings.

Others believe that while the NALP’s findings are interesting, women in law have bigger fish to fry.

Limited Data Means Limited Insight

As the president of The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), a 112-year-old organization considered to be the voice of women in the law, founded long before most national bar associations admitted women, Dorian Denburg is often faced with facts, statistics, studies, and findings related to women in the industry. As an expert well versed in the many challenges women in law face, Denburg dismissed the importance of the NALP’s findings for four key reasons.

“First of all, the decline was quite small,” Denburg said. “But not only that, it was limited to associates and the findings were only based on one year of data. Add to that the fact that this is the worst job market of recent memory and I don’t think there’s much cause for concern. Actually, let’s rephrase that: It needs to be on the radar screen, but at this point in time I’d be very reluctant to read too much into it. If the numbers continue to decline in the coming years, then it’s time to worry.”

Denburg is hesitant for good reason. Her own organization conducted a five-year longitudinal study of men and women working at the country’s 200 largest firms that found that the percentage of women equity partners has remained unchanged for five years.

Bigger Fish

NAWL’s annual Survey on the Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms [PDF] found that women attorneys continue to lag behind their male counterparts in firm leadership, equity positions, and as rainmakers—three areas critical to law firm success. For the first time, the 2010 survey specifically addressed the impact of non-partner track roles on women’s advancement and the role that part-time status plays in the retention of women lawyers in private firms. Women make up the majority of staff and part-time attorneys at large firms.

Staff attorney positions offer little possibility of career advancement and part-time attorneys are often the first to be let go.

NAWL also discovered that the average firm’s highest governing committee includes only one or two women among its members. Also, only about 10 percent of the nation’s largest firms have no women at all on their governing committees.

As we learned from the NALP’s findings, female associates seemed hardest hit by the recession when it came to being let go, but there is good news for them: Female associate compensation appears to be on par with male associate compensation. The bad news, however, is that the compensation gap actually widens considerably at every higher level. In 2010, the compensation gap widened further at the equity level, as women equity partners only earned 85 percent of the compensation earned by their male counterparts.

Countering Bias

According to Denburg, achieving equilibrium for women in the industry is crucial and their stagnation only proves that existing practices aren’t sufficient. The problem is that one of the biggest things holding them back is the hardest to fight.

“Much of the problem can be traced back to unconscious bias,” Denburg said. “Intentionally or not, people want to be with people they can relate to. Most often, old, white men are in charge and the people they see themselves in are the ones that are given opportunities to develop a competitive skill set and advance in the firm. Because minorities and women don’t have the book of business that white men do in the 200 largest firms, they aren’t invested in and don’t have the skills that come with being entrusted with bigger opportunities. All of this makes them the most vulnerable to being cut when layoffs occur. It’s like a Catch 22 for women and minorities. When there is enough work to go around, firms tend to give it to those with the strongest skill set, which is most often white men.”

Changing Business as Usual

There is little female lawyers – or anyone, for that matter – can do to categorically put an end unconscious bias. So the next best step for women is knowing the business side of their profession. Denburg believes that law schools students should have to learn basic business fundamentals, such as how earnings and revenue are calculated, in order to graduate. It’s common sense, really. As a business’s in-house council, you should actually understand how a business is run.

“Women simply don’t possess the crucial business knowledge of their male counterparts. Basic business fundamentals are critical to the future success of women lawyers,” Denburg said. “It’s important not to get discouraged, though. Some people obviously have advantages women and minorities don’t, but at the end of the day it’s about figuring out who makes the rules and how to get a seat at the table.”