Case Study: Diversifying the Plaintiffs Bar, One Small Firm at a Time
"We haven't hired a friend's kid," said a founding partner of 37-lawyer Pond Lehocky. "So I don't think we've ever been in that position where we have only candidates that look like our friends."
April 20, 2017 at 10:00 AM
11 minute read
Many law firms, looking to boost their diversity, have launched formal committees or initiatives to attract and promote women and minorities.
Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano, a 37-lawyer workers' compensation and personal injury firm based in Philadelphia, found it took a less formal approach to outdo most of its peers.
courtesy photo
Among personal injury firms in Pennsylvania, Pond Lehocky's demographics show far-above-average diversity, with nearly equal numbers of men and women among its lawyers. Founding partner David Stern acknowledges that there's more to be done—the four-lawyer partnership is still all-male, for one thing, and the percentage of nonwhite lawyers remains just under 15 percent. But abandoning an old-guard approach to hiring and promoting has helped shape the firm's makeup and culture, he said—and it's been good for business.
|The Challenge
Plaintiffs firms in Philadelphia are dominated by white men, with women making up 28 percent of their head count and minorities 7 percent on average, according to The Legal's annual survey of trial lawyer diversity. That survey has shown progress over the past decade, but it has been slow at most firms. Many personal injury firms hire new lawyers infrequently and keep their head counts low, so there are few opportunities to fix the problem.
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