Returning to Proskauer Rose after eight years as New York City Corporation Counsel, Michael Cardozo said he was not happy with the state of diversity at both the firm and in the legal industry.

As the city's top lawyer during the Bloomberg administration, Cardozo oversaw an effort to raise ethnic and racial minorities to 21 percent of the Law Department from 13 percent with no loss in quality, he is quick to add.

“The legal profession has a huge problem. There are obviously not enough diverse lawyers in the big firms,” said Cardozo, who was given the mission to improve diversity at Proskauer upon his return in 2014.