Associate Diversity Is Improving, Partners Not So Much
Associate diversity has made significant gains in recent years, but partner diversity continues to lag.
That’s according to the annual Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms from the NALP Directory of Legal Employers.
“Overall gains continued to be made in the representation of women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals in the associate and summer associate ranks at major U.S. law firms in 2022 as compared to 2021,” according to the report. “Of particular note, the percentage of Black associates grew by nearly 0.6 percentage points to 5.77 percent, and the percentage of Black summer associates increased by 0.7 percentage points to 11.85 percent. While improvements were also made at the partnership level in 2022, progress continues to lag far behind that of associates and summer associates, with people of color and women comprising just 11.40 percent and 26.65 percent of all partners, respectively, in 2022.”
Read the 2022-23 Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms.
Go to the NALP website.
Read an article on the report in the ABA Journal.
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2022-23 Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms
Here are some highlights from the report:
- Black associates increased by nearly 0.6 percentage points to 5.77 of all associates in 2022.
- Summer associates of color jumped 1.7 percent, increasing from 41.34 percent in 2021 to 43.03 percent in 2022. Multiracial summer associates jumped 0.7 points.
- Women summer associates remained relatively constant at 55 percent – the fifth consecutive year more than half of all associates were women.
- People of color constituted only 11.4 percent of all partners (equity and non-equity); women comprised only 26.7 percent.
- Partnership diversity has grown by less than 16 percent over the past 30 years, according to NALP data. Only 4 percent of all partners are women of color, and Black and Latinx women were less than 1 percent of all partners.
- The percentage of Black partners rose only 0.1 percent, from 2.22 percent in 2021 to 2.32 percent in 2022.
- San Diego and Miami had the largest share of partners of color (33 percent and 29 percent respectively).
- White men constituted around 75 percent of all equity partners.
NALPPressReleaseDiversityReportJanuary2023.pdf
NALP - The National Association for Law Placement
NALP - National Association for Law Placement | NALP Report on Diversity
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