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Additional Posts in Attorneys of Color
Rising Star
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There's nothing to address...Law firms love making it seem like finding qualified minorities are as hard as finding a 3 legged giraffe.
Rising Star
From that sentence alone, I would leave.
"Not enough good minorities" is racist speak 101
I second this. Too much red flag. This is sugarcoated racism.
Pro
Agree with A1 and Atty1. Nothing to really address. If their core belief is that minorities are intellectually inferior and therefore finding qualified minorities is like going unicorn hunting, I doubt you could say much to change that mindset.
But, identifying maybe 10-20 talented minority lawyers in your city/area in private practice, dropping the stats on the # or % of minority lawyers in govt practice (even criminal law), sharing the number of minorities enrolled in your state’s law schools, and pointing out the firm’s lack of diversity recruitment all in a single email could be a start for addressing it, if you must.
Clearly something is wrong about how they are recruiting.
Or going very right depending on if you believe they're actually trying.
I had a similar experience at my prior firm. It was a global firm and in my practice group there wasn’t one black partner. So I first asked a few partners if there was one (since I didn’t see any on our website but giving the firm the benefit of the doubt) and was told “yea there has to be.” So when I asked them to point them out to me, they couldn’t and hit me with “it’s just so hard to find good diverse talent.” I replied: “in the whole world? We are a global firm and you’re telling me we can’t find ONE black corporate partner in the entire world?” They actually brought this observation to the higher ups and later admitted they hadn’t noticed.
In guess my advice is state the obvious. Sometimes people don’t realize the lack of diversity because it simply isn’t their main focus or concern.
Pro
My laughter is not meant to be disrespectful. Your sentiments mirror my own.
Honestly, save your mental energy for something else. Everyone knows why big law firms struggle with diversity amongst their partnership ranks and it’s ridiculous to pretend otherwise. The bottom line is, your law firm doesn’t appear interested in changing the status quo. So you have to decide whether you want to fight this battle or focus on doing good work and gaining more skills so you can use that to pursue other opportunities.
I am currently in a similar situation where my practice group doesn’t have any Black partners and only one partner of color. Also, I was at a big law firm where I was the only Black woman in the entire firm’s HQ office that had over 350 attorneys in that location. I left and I’m now at another big law firm in a satellite office that has over 15 black attorneys in my office.
🙄 I guess none of the minority associates was “a good fit…”.
This 👆💯 smh
depending on the market and practice area, this might be right. I live in a secondary market that has a lot of big law firms, but they are all overwhelmingly white and male, especially in the partnership ranks. This makes it very difficult to attract diverse lateral partners (especially because they are generally well retained at other firms) so the pool is just so small.
I can only speak for my firm, but the focus right now is on retaining diverse associates so they stay long enough to be promoted to partner. Excluding certain markets like NYC and LA, law partners are still overwhelmingly non-diverse so there just aren’t many out there to hire.
By leaving. Nothing you can do will change that firm and will only harm your career.
Why is it his or her responsibility to change that firm? Screw that. you spend over a1/3 of your adult life at work. Why be somewhere you’re miserable and unappreciated? Clients aren’t stupid. They make their own bed. The firm will have to deal with the professional consequences.
They are creating the culture they want to have. If they aren't trying, then they don't want to understand (or believe) the stupidity. I get what A3 is trying to say above and, at the same time, I just don't see how firms will begin to attract diverse partners with zero diversity.
I kind of feel like it's a catch 22. Like, their entire partner group is old, white and male, so minority candidates tend to shy away, because why bother? Then the cycle just continues, because the only people who ever apply are also predominantly white and male. Not saying it's right, obviously, I'm just saying I think this is part of the problem and I'm really not sure how to fix it.
Pro
Well there are also all the well known and publicized reasons for minority lawyer attrition: lack of parity in work assignments, bias in performance reviews, social differences, lack of engaged mentors, etc.
Yea it's BS. First thing I do is look at partner groups for firms with offices in NYC, DC, Charlotte, Atlanta and Houston. If I don't see any black partners, it's a choice and not due to difficulty finding good candidates.
Pro
THIS IS BIG FACTS. No way on earth you have offices in the South of the United States and cannot find black talent. GO TO HELL!!!
Sorry yall, I just drank a Mt. dew
Check the book How to Talk to Your Boss about Race and give ReadySet a call. (I swear I don’t work for them or get anything from promoting them - just love what they do and stand for!)
You know that issues like this is so hard to address especially when there is clearly something wrong. And the subtle remark of "wasn't good minorities to hire.." is something else. Lol.
Rising Star
that POC is a Clarence Thomas. Stay away
Hard to promote someone to the partnership when your pep talk involves a monologue by a criminal cop uttering racial slurs. 🙃
Find a new job. You’ll never make it there —they’re telling you so I’m so many words.