Progress on diversity and inclusion at major law firms has failed to advance into the partnership ranks, largely because many career-enhancing opportunities, such as origination credit and a firm's non-billable activities, aren't meaningfully tracked, according to a study by legal diversity organizations Diversity Lab and ChIP.

The study's results, included in The Inclusion Blueprint, found that pay equity, origination credit, non-billable activities and first-chair responsibilities have yet to be scrutinized and tracked at the majority of firms. While there has been progress, it also found that women and minority attorneys have not yet broken into the equity partner ranks at meaningful levels.

The Inclusion Blueprint is a joint initiative by Diversity Lab and ChIPs that measures whether firms have implemented proven practices to attract and retain diverse talent. It also offers guidance on how firms can improve their diversity. It aims to ensure that lawyers of all backgrounds and identities have equal access to opportunities and strives to put an end to any unconscious biases that may exist within firms.

The survey used law school diversity representation figures to craft an "inclusion blueprint" that the study's authors said "are achievable but likely a stretch for most of the Am Law 200."

"The Inclusion Blueprint targets are a middle-ground between those numbers and a stretch for the majority of Am Law 200 firms to reach in the short-term. As more firms achieve these thresholds, our plan is to increase the targets annually until they mirror law school graduation rates," said Caren Ulrich Stacy, CEO of Diversity Lab, in a statement.

For the 59 Am Law 200 firms and 14 non-Am Law 200 firms included in the study, the blueprint metrics were broken into five categories. These included overall firm leadership as well as to practice groups such as antitrust, intellectual property and privacy; finance and real estate; litigation; and regulatory.

Each of the five categories was asked about their record in meeting the representation thresholds for diversity, year-over-year progress in representation, inclusion practices and tracking metrics. The threshold targets were:

  • 30% representation of women.
  • 15% representation among racial and ethnic minorities.
  • 5% representation of LGBTQ+ lawyers.

Just 7% of the law firms surveyed met or exceeded the equity partner gender threshold, while 43% met the nonequity threshold. Regarding race, 17% of firms met the equity partner goal and 30% met or exceeded the nonequity goal. LGBTQ+ attorneys fared the worst, with just 8% of firms hitting the 5% threshold.

The gap between the nonequity and equity partnership among minority attorneys is nothing new, as minority partners have traditionally lacked access to opportunities in building a book of business. The same goes for women, which is why the lack of transparency and tracking in business-generating activities such as origination was highlighted by the study's authors.

"It's striking to me that the least tracked inclusion activities at the leadership and partner levels include non-billable hours, origination credit and pay equity. These are possibly the most important activities a firm should track for its partners," Ulrich-Stacy said.

"Our research shows that women partners often do double or triple the amount of non-billable firm citizenship work that is incredibly valuable to firms, such as recruiting and mentoring talent, but they don't get credit towards compensation in the same way that business origination does. This imbalance is likely contributing to the pay gap, which also isn't getting tracked and measured by firms routinely," she continued.

Although women and minority partners are still underrepresented in the equity tier, the firms reported signs of improvement: 63% of firms reported an increase in women equity partners, 54% reported an increase in minority equity partners, and 27% reported an increase in LBGTQ+ equity partners.

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Practice Groups and Associates

The surveyed firms performed much better on a practice group and associate level. Among the respondents, 80% hit the goal for women associates, 70% met or exceeded the racial minority threshold and 46% achieved the LGBTQ+ goal.

Some practice groups fared better than others among certain demographics. Women are most represented among regulatory practice groups, with 92% of firms hitting the representational threshold for women associates. About 35% of litigation practice groups met the threshold for women equity partners.

Minority attorneys are best represented among the antitrust, IP, privacy and cyber practice groups, with 47% of firms meeting or exceeding the 15% threshold for minority equity partners and 79% hitting the minority associate goal.

The performance for business, finance and real estate practices was worse than all others. Just 22% of firms hit the women equity partner threshold while 16% of firms hit the minority equity partner goal.

Additionally, 13 firms scored highly in one or more of the five categories and were dubbed "2019 Inclusion Blueprint Champions."

Leadership:

  • Brooks Kushman
  • DLA Piper
  • Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton

Antitrust, IP, Privacy and Cyber:

  • Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
  • Baker Botts
  • Brooks Kushman
  • Morrison & Foerster
  • Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch

Business, Finance and Real Estate:

  • Perkins Coie
  • Reed Smith
  • Sheppard Mullin
  • Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

Litigation:

  • Goldberg Segalla
  • Ropes & Gray
  • Sheppard Mullin

Regulatory:

  • Reed Smith
  • Sheppard Mullin
  • Wiley Rein

The full report can be found on the Diversity Lab website.

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Read More:

At More Than One-Third of the Am Law 100, Minority Partners Are Disproportionately Nonequity