Four months ago, I started the “Unicorn Watch” to track new black partners of Big Law. For several weeks thereafter, I got emails, tweets and LinkedIn messages from law firms and lawyers with fresh names to add to my list. For a while, I was hopeful that the list would continue to expand.

Alas, it's early June, and that momentary sign of momentum has faded away.

Sadly, my earlier hunch was right: It's another awful, dismal, horrible year for the promotion of black lawyers to partner.

We now have data from three sources—the National Association for Law Placement, Vault/Minority Corporate Counsel Association and, most recently, The ­American Lawyer's 2019 Diversity Scorecard—confirming what most of us already know: Black lawyers are stuck, rarely rising to the top layer of the profession.

Their representation in the partnership ranks of Big Law is just sad, comprising only 2% of all partners at major firms. Actually, the situation is worse. According to Vault/MCCA, the rate of black lawyers promoted to partner last year—2.3%—was actually the lowest to date.

Nonetheless, we should celebrate what we can. Here are the latest additions to our Unicorn list:

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner: Angelia Duncan, Tiffany McKenzie, Courtney Peterson. More amazing, the trio are all women. The class was composed of 23 new partners, which included 13 women.

Carlton Fields: Yolanda Strader, a litigator. The new class was composed of 10 lawyers, including four women.

Debevoise & Plimpton: Arian June. One of seven lawyers elevated (three women), June is a white collar litigator. The partner promotions will go into effect on July 1, 2019.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson: Matthew Howard. A corporate lawyer, Howard is the firm's sole black partner. He was among the 10 that got elected this year, along with three women.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani: Travis Jang-Busby, a labor employment lawyer. Half-black and half-Chinese, Jang-Bushy gets to check two diversity boxes. The firm also promoted 11 women out of a class of 25 new partners.

Norton Rose Fulbright:  Jamila Mensah, a labor employment lawyer. The firm elected a 13-person class in the U.S., including six diverse lawyers who are female and/or people of color.

These eight unicorns join those I had previously documented back in February:

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld: Nnedinma C. Ifudu Nweke.

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer: Raqiyyah Pippins.

Drinker Biddle & Reath: David Williams.

Jenner & Block: Keisha Stanford.

Nixon Peabody: John Marti and Ed Campbell.

Shearman & Sterling: Derrick Lott.

Thompson Coburn: Felicia Williams and R. Nelson Williams.

The grand total for the Am Law 200 this year: 17 new black partners! Whoopee!

To say that the list is modest is being way too polite. I only hope that my count is incomplete and that some firms have been simply too humble to blow their horn about their awesome diversity records.

But if my count is at all accurate, this is downright pathetic.

Related coverage: But Where Are the Black Partners?; (White) Women Are Making Gains in Big Law; It's Lonely at the Top for Big Law's Few Black Leaders.