Top Law Firms Don’t Make the Grade on Diversity
“You know, you are a pretty good boss, and I like working for this firm and all, but to be honest, this place is a little weak on diversity. So, I’m going to have to give you an F.”
Sounds like the setup for a skit from the Office, but in reality, this is what many of the top law firms in America have been hearing recently, thanks to a survey completed by Stanford Law students. The survey tallied the number of associates and partners at major firms that self-identified as African-American, Hispanic, Asian, female or gay. Then, the students set about handing out “report cards” ranking the firms on how well they have done on incorporating diversity into their firm.
A recent New York Times article by Adam Liptak called “In Students’ Eyes, Look-Alike Lawyers Don’t Make the Grade,” shed some light on the impact of this data on the law firm recruiting process. Surprisingly, the influence of the student survey has been far reaching. As students at elite schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford wrap up recruiting season around the country, and have a range of law firm job offers to chose from, where a firm stands on the diversity rankings can make the difference between an acceptance and a rejection from a top recruit. This is exactly what the Stanford students had hoped for: to influence the firms into changing their recruiting and retention practices so as to improve diversity.
In New York, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton got the highest grade, an A-minus, for reporting that 48.8% of the associates are female, 8.7% are black, 8.3% are Hispanic and 4.5% are openly gay.
Michele Landis Dauber, a law professor at Stanford, served as the adviser for the project, which is called Building a Better Legal Profession. The complete set of rankings are available on the project website. The report covers major firms in New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and Northern and Southern California. Take a peek to see how your firm stacks up.
On the website, the survey data can be displayed to rank all of the firms in a given market according to the number of female associates and partners. The firms in New York with the highest number of female partners were:
- Morrison & Foerster (23.3%)
- Jones Day (22.5%)
- LeBoef, Lamb (now Dewey & LeBoef) (22.2%)
- Davis Polk (22.1%)
- Winston & Strawn (22.1%).
The top five firms in New York with the highest number of female associates are:
- Carter Ledyard (64.6%)
- Hogan & Hartson (63.3%)
- Alston & Bird (59.6%)
- DLA Piper (58.8%)
- Baker & McKenzie (57.1%)
Interestingly, Wachtell Lipton, often considered New York’s top firm, ranked dead last in the gender diversity category and got an F, with 27.3% female associates.
Overall, this survey provides a large volume of useful data, but law students and lawyers should take note that the percentages are closely bunched together, meaning that a firm with 53% female associates gets an A whereas a firm with 45% female associates only ranks a D. Whether this 7% is statistically significant enough to account for the disparity in ranking is not apparent. Furthermore, while the raw data is interesting, it does not tell the whole story. More important than whether a firm has 43% or 45% women is how those women are treated at the firm, and whether they are encouraged to stay and develop their skills through mentoring, women’s networks and progressive part-time and maternity policies.
Thus, while this survey data is very helpful, and can be a great tool in helping to identify which firms need to improve their diversity efforts, it should not be taken as the final word on diversity at law firms. However, it provides a great jumping off point for more research into qualitative aspects of diversity in addition to the quantitative.
