Solving the Legal Profession’s Diversity Problem
14th March 2016
Here is a familiar fact pattern in large U.S. law firms.
Time 1. Partners come together and agree that diversity is part of their firm’s core values; they review the firm’s bleak statistics, particularly at the partnership level, and agree they can and will do better.
Time 2. Through significant time and expense, they successfully recruit a diverse class of incoming associates.
Time 3. A disproportionately large number of female and diverse associates leave the firm.
Time 4. The remaining associates eligible for partner are primarily white men.
Time 5. Partners come together and agree that diversity is part of their firm’s core values; they review the firm’s bleak statistics, particularly at the partnership level, and agree they can and will do better.
In other words, the firm is committed to fixing a problem that they didn’t create and that they are powerless to solve, unless they can somehow force women and minorities to stick around long enough to be considered for partner. (Can a government program be far behind?)
This is the catch-22 world that ‘diversity’ throws us into.