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I’ve seen this from several clients and current use diversity considerations when selecting firms. This recounting is a bit disingenuous, I think. You present this like you were fired out of the blue, instead of more likely having lost out in a competition in which you were informed of the company’s diversity requirements and failed to meet them. In any event, we do this because of people like you that seem to throw their hands up in the air and claim they have no control over diversity in their firm despite being in charge of hiring. It’s fine to have that attitude, you just won’t be our client with it.
Rising Star
Good. Women and BIPOC have to work 10 times harder to be at the same level as white men. I only hire diverse candidates for that reason. They are quite literally more qualified. I don’t have to worry about who’s daddy did another daddy a favor for their son.
Let’s be honest, this is a little ridiculous of them
If you can’t attract diverse talent this day in l age, there is something seriously wrong with your firm.
Kudos to this company for having objectives and actually implementing consequences when firms fail to meet them. There is a gross lack of diversity at law firms, and this won’t change until there is a threat to a firm’s bottom line. More companies should follow suit.
I’m sure there were warning/guidelines/conversations about this at the highest (relationship) partner level… no way they wouldn’t have given the firm a heads up if they really liked you.
I haven’t had the experience of being terminated because my firm isn’t diverse enough; but I’ve had my firm ask me to sign off on them disclosing the fact that I am a minority precisely for this reason. Because there are clients that care that the firm be diverse according certain metrics they set.
Gotta be honest, I appreciate the push to diversify the profession, but I have never felt like such a token person as when this happened. Like clients are only interested in my work, or the firm only hired me in the first place, because I’m brown - not because my work is good. Feels bad man.
I wish it was just approached as hiring good lawyers, regardless of the color of their skin or what’s between their legs. After all, I’m a lawyer — not a minority lawyer, not a Hispanic lawyer, not a brown lawyer. I am just a lawyer - full stop.
Good on the client. Diversify
I’ve heard of bigger clients wanting more diversity including women run firms.
Good firms can attract diverse talent. If your firm doesn’t have diverse talent, you aren’t the best of the best. I think some introspection is in order
Rising Star
A lot of companies have implemented a 30-50% women/minority/LGBT requirement. That’s a pretty low bar. Only 50-70% of the team can be white men. So if a client dropped you like a hot potato, you must not even be trying to diversify.
Diversity of people is not just to meet some random quota. A diversity of people leads to a diversity of experiences and a diversity of backgrounds, which leads to a diversity of thoughts on how to handle situations that your clients encounter so that an optimal solution can be reached. This has been proven (i.e., not just conjecture). People who have similar experiences tend to address problems in a similar manner and it is easier to overlook other solutions in that environment. It sounds like the client wants to work with firms that provide that diversity of attorneys, experiences, backgrounds, and thoughts.
Rising Star
And that, of course, is the client’s choice.
Pro
We have a big firm client, fortune 500 company, that has set very clear expectations for the diversity of its outside firms. They were upfront a few years ago about how we were missing the mark and what we needed to do, which we’ve been working on. I assume there were similar conversations in your case but maybe they didn’t see enough progress?
Chief
It’s so when companies, especially large public ones, say “we are so very sad about x, so we committing $500 million dollars to diversity!!!” they can use that money on legal bills.
Sorry you got shafted.
Some municipalities and accounting firms have specifically told us we need to have more diverse teams. Problem is, most litigation partners are old white men. I love the old white men I work with. They're very competent and do great work. Losing the client means I am deprived of the work experience as well. I tick off the DEI box. I think those policies are short-sighted, but it's the clients choice, so what I think probably doesn't matter.
Rising Star
OP is like a jilted lover. We can’t take his word at face value.
Good. I'm a black female. One of my friends, also a black female, applied to a firm twice. The problem was her cover letter had her picture on it. Then a friend of hers, a white female attorney, passed that same resume over to the same firm just without the cover letter. My friend immediately got an interview. During the interview however, the managing partner went on and on about how they would like to hire black people but they just aren't qualified. We're millennials. This isn't 30 years ago. He said this to her face. Needless to say, my friend did not get the job. In this day, lack of diversity equates to racism. Qualified POC exist. However our skin pigment is a major deterrence during the hiring process.
Rising Star
As much as I think this was stupid on OP’s former client’s part, it is said client’s choice to hire whatever firm it wants for whatever reason. Which also goes both ways. But I’m a adamant libertarian so I’m sure anyone can guess my views on the subject.
But for real... if true, isn't this illegal? If a business were to terminate a firm and state that the reason is that the firm had too many lawyers of a given minority group, wouldn't that be illegal? I'm asking, not telling. I'm not an employment lawyer. (And, no, I'm not feeling sorry for white men and I'm not generally concerned about "reverse discrimination." Would just honestly like to know.)
Rising Star
Exactly, A3. It isn’t employment discrimination; they are outside vendors. It might be bad PR to say “I don’t want to hire black, female, pregnant, gay [insert group here] people as 1099 contractors,” I don’t know there could much that could be done about it. But, Let’s be honest, in my view all employment discrimination is pretty much under the radar and is very hard to prove. I mean, who is going to hang sign the equivalent of “No Irish Need Apply” these days. (Though I think I have one for ironic purposes.)
Mansfield Rule
Firms and people don't understand that good work is the bare minimum.