Minority Representation in the Legal Profession
An organization called The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession was created in 1986 to promote the “full and equal participation” of minorities in the legal profession. The commission serves as a clearinghouse for data on the subject. Some of their findings include a 2004 report which found that minority representation in the legal profession is significantly lower than in most other professions, and that there are fewer minorities at top level jobs.
• Total minority representation among lawyers is only about 9.7 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, compared to 20.8 percent among accountants and auditors, 24.6 percent among physicians and surgeons, and 18.2 percent among college and university teachers.
• The initial employment of minority lawyers still differs significantly from that of whites.
• Minorities are less likely than whites to have judicial clerkships after law school.
• Overall, minorities are also less likely than white to begin their careers in private practice, and more likely to start off in government and public interest jobs.
• Minorities remain grossly underrepresented in top-level private sector jobs, such as law partner and corporate general counsel.
• Nationally, minority representation among partners remains less
than 4.0 percent in all but the very largest law firms, and only 4.4 percent in the nation’s largest 250 law firms. Since 1999, national minority representation among partners has increased only 0.7 per- cent.
• Minority representation among corporate gen- eral counsel is only 4.3 percent in Fortune 1000 firms.
• Progress has been especially slow for minority women in the profession.
This study graphically illustrates the need for more minorities to enter the field, and also indi- cates the particular need for minorities to have professional mentors and to develop their own career networks to help them push through the “glass ceiling.” After all, minorities are some- times the first ones in their family to pursue a pro- fessional degree and may lack the extensive net- work of support that others may have both in col- lege and early on in their careers. “Mentoring is a real critical thing," said Petra De Jesus, president of the San Francisco La
Raza Lawyers Association and an attorney at Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons & Farrise in Oakland. "It doesn't mat- ter what nationality they are, if someone is willing to put in the time to mentor you. Too many people have fallen by the wayside because they don't get mentored.”
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