Diversity

What are the business costs of ignoring racial and gender diversity?

The benefits of having a diverse workplace are well-established. In fact, a lack of diversity can even have a negative effect on the bottom line. So why haven’t law firms taken account of the business benefits of diversity? That was the question a group of minority and female attorneys and…

Aug 1, 2015 6:54 PM CDT

Dentons hires former general counsel for General Mills who pushed law firms for diversity

Dentons has hired former General Mills general counsel Roderick “Rick” Palmore, a 2009 ABA Journal Legal Rebel who promoted diversity in the legal profession. Palmore will serve as a senior counsel at Dentons, where he will advise corporations on risk management and governance issues, according to a press release. Palmore,…

Jul 22, 2015 11:13 AM CDT

How law firms are innovating when it comes to hiring

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said at the outset of the Obama Administration. And yet, for many organizations, inertial forces are very difficult to overcome and crises—like what the Great Recession meant for law firms—fail to inspire innovation. So it…

Jul 15, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

Law is the nation’s least-diverse profession, law prof says

The legal profession is less diverse than other professions, yet fails to recognize a significant problem, according to Stanford University law professor Deborah Rhode. Writing for the Washington Post, Rhode has the statistics. Eighty-eight percent of lawyers are white, compared to 81 percent of architects and engineers, 78 percent of…

May 28, 2015 7:13 AM CDT

Two global law firms will use software to find standout UK hires from underprivileged backgrounds

Two international law firms will be using social mobility software to identify standout job candidates in London who have overcome underprivileged backgrounds. The law firms Baker & McKenzie and Hogan Lovells are using the so-called Rare Contextual Recruitment System, which measures “social mobility characteristics” of job candidates, according to this…

May 21, 2015 9:52 AM CDT

Righting a ‘grievous wrong,’ California justices grant posthumous law license to Chinese immigrant

The California Supreme Court has granted a posthumous law license to a Chinese immigrant 125 years after it refused to admit him into the bar. In a decision on Monday, the court said it was granting the law license to Hong Yen Chang in “a candid reckoning with a sordid…

Mar 17, 2015 10:36 AM CDT

National labor firm raids Littler and Ogletree, opens new offices in Denver and New York

Atlanta-based Constangy Brooks & Smith has raided two well-known labor and employment firms and some BigLaw competitors, gaining 12 attorneys, two new offices and an additional name partner in the process. Don Prophete, who practices in Kansas City, will be the new name on the marquee for the nearly 160-attorney…

Mar 5, 2015 1:50 PM CST

After four-year decline, percentage of female associates ‘nudged up’ in 2014

The percentage of female associates “finally nudged up” in 2014, following four years of slight declines, according to the National Associated for Law Placement. According to a NALP press release (PDF), 44.94 percent of associates were female in 2014, compared to 44.79 percent in 2013. The 2014 number is still…

Feb 17, 2015 2:18 PM CST

Law school diversity improves, but not at most prestigious schools

The percentage of black and Hispanic students attending law school is increasing, but not at the most prestigious schools, a law professor’s study has found. Saint Louis University School of Law professor Aaron Taylor examined the period from 2010, when first-year law school enrollment peaked, to 2013, when 1L enrollment…

Feb 12, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Can a new breed of firms solve the attrition problem for women in the legal industry?

Earlier this year, The National Association of Women Lawyers released the results of its National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. This annual survey provides sobering news on the state of women at the 200 largest firms in the country, collectively known as BigLaw.

Dec 17, 2014 8:45 AM CST

Which law firms got perfect scores for LGBT inclusion?

Eighty-nine law firms achieved perfect scores from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation for workplace treatment of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals, the foundation announced on Wednesday. The ratings are part of the foundation’s 2015 Corporate Equality Index. Last year, 81 law firms got a perfect score.Only 30 law firms…

Nov 19, 2014 7:57 AM CST

Only 3 percent of lawyers in BigLaw are black, and numbers are falling

BigLaw has few African American lawyers and the numbers are declining, according to a new survey. Only 3 percent of the lawyers at large law firms are African American, and only 1.9 percent of the partners are African American, according to the American Lawyer’s Diversity Scorecard. Though the percentage of…

May 30, 2014 12:18 PM CDT

Why the No. 5 law firm in France is gender-balanced at the top levels

The French law firm TAJ is led by a man who takes gender balance seriously. The law firm has a 50/50 gender balance in equity partnerships, governance committees and all other levels, according to an HBR Blog Network post by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of the gender consulting firm 20-first. TAJ…

May 29, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Law prof will be first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed three nominees to federal judgeships, including a former prosecutor who will be the first Native American woman to serve as a federal judge. A member of the Hopi tribe, Diane Humetewa was approved in a 96-0 vote. She is special counsel at Arizona State…

May 15, 2014 2:32 PM CDT

Law students seek license for long-deceased would-be attorney

Seeking to right a 124-year-old wrong, a law student group and two law professors at the University of California-Davis have submitted a bar application on behalf of Hong Yeng Chang. In a well-known case, he was denied a law license in 1890 because he was Chinese, KCRA reports. An 1886…

May 5, 2014 10:55 PM CDT