Diversity Benchmarking Study Racial/ Ethnic Minority Specific Findings

Diversity Benchmarking Study

Racial/ Ethnic Minority Specific Findings

Sponsored by: The Office for Diversity The Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession Deloitte

For full report or further information, please contact Meredith Moore, Director of the Office for Diversity, at 212-382-6689 or [email protected]. The New York City Bar Association 42 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036 www.nycbar.org

Diversity Signatory Law Firm Benchmarking Report

RACIAL/ETHNIC MINORITIES

Overall, New York City signatory firms have a greater percentage of minorities than the legal profession nationally—15.2 percent of the nearly 17,000 attorneys at signatory firms are racial/ethnic minorities compared to 10.8 percent in the profession as a whole (ABA, Statistics about Minorities in the Profession from the Census, 2000). Much of this diversity is represented in the associate ranks, particularly in the most recent classes hired. Minorities represent over one-fifth of associates, but continue to comprise smaller percentages of special counsel and partnership positions (5.5% and 4.7% respectively).

Representation by Level by Whites and Minorities in Signatory Law Firms, as of March 2004

94.5% 95.3% 84.8% 78.9% White Minorities 15.2% 21.1% 5.5% 4.7%

All Associates=10,582 Special Partner=4,791 Attorneys=16,604 Counsel=1,231

Drilling down further, the largest percentage of racial/ethnic minorities is Asian/Pacific Islanders, particularly when examining the associate pool. The percentage of Asian/Pacific Islander associates is more than double the percentage of Black/African-Americans (12% compared to 5%).

Associates (10,582) by Race/Ethnicity in Signatory Law Firms, as of March 2004

11.8%

5.1% 3.6% 0.3% 0.4%

Am. Ind/Alsk. As. & Pac. Isl. Black Hispanic Multi-racial

Comparing the remaining associates from the classes of 1996 and 2003 reveals a greater representation of many minority groups among incoming associates than is present in the senior associate, or pre-partner pool.

Race/Ethnicity of Current Associates Remaining at Firm by Class Year, as of March 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 & Earlier Am. 0.7% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% Ind./Alsk. As. & Pac. Isl. 14.9% 13.5% 13.4% 13.6% 13.0% 11.3% 11.9% 11.8% 7.3% Black 6.8% 5.7% 6.3% 5.8% 3.5% 4.6% 3.9% 4.2% 3.1% Hispanic 3.9% 4.1% 3.7% 3.8% 3.6% 3.4% 2.4% 2.9% 2.9% Multi-Racial 0.6% 0.3% 0.2% 0.5% 0.6% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%

This data does not distinguish between the loss of minority associates through attrition, the composition of lateral associate hires, an increased focus on diversity recruiting, or a more diverse law school graduate pool.

The differential between Asian-Americans and other racial groups is much less at the partnership and special counsel levels than for associates. In part, this is due to the low percentages of minority partners and special counsel overall. Only 1.9 percent of partners are Asian-American compared to 1.4 percent Hispanic and 1.2 percent Black.

Special Counsel & Partners by Race/Ethnicity in Signatory Law Firms, as of March 2004 2.8% 1.9% 1.6% 1.4% 1.1% 1.2%

0.0% 0.0%0.1% 0.0%

Special Counsel=1,231 Partner=4,791

Am. Ind/Alsk. As. & Pac. Isl. Black Hispanic Multi-racial

New Partner Promotions and Lateral Hires. Seven percent of new promotions to partner as of March 2004 were racial/ethnic minorities. Of the 20 minority new promotes to partner, 8 were Asian/Pacific Islander and 8 were Black/African Americans.

New Promotes and Lateral Hires to Partner by Race/Ethnicity, as of March 2004 New Lateral Hires Promotions Am. Ind./Alsk. 0 0 As. & Pac. Isl. 8 4 Black 8 6 Hispanic 3 2 Multi-Racial 1 0 Total Minorities 20 12

Comparing the members of the class of 1996 remaining, who could be considered part of the pre-partner pool, with the new promotes, this data suggests that the available diversity is not being tapped. While 19 percent of the remaining class of 1996 are racial/ethnic minorities, they represent only 7 percent of new promotes to partner. Looked at another way, 20 of the 105 racial/ethnic minorities in the class of 1996 were made partner (19.0%), compared to 264 of the 445 whites in that class (59.3%)1. Signatory firms should explore whether this discrepancy signals bias in the partnership decision-making process, lack of honest feedback on partnership prospects, or clustering in practice areas with fewer avenues for partnership. In any of these cases, this necessitates intervention by firm leadership.

1 For additional data on class years, please refer to the prior Associate section on page 8. Additional new promotion to partner data can be found in the Partnership section on page 10.

METHODOLOGY This data is based on the responses of 82 law firm signatories to the New York City Bar’s Statement of Diversity Principles, as of November 2004. This represents a 95 percent response rate. Each individual firm’s response to the web-based survey is treated as anonymous and confidential. This data is a snapshot of participating firms between January – March 2004 to serve as a baseline for measuring progress. This data represents only the New York City area offices of the signatory firms. For comparison purposes, we utilized the demographic categories and terminology employed by the National Association of Law Placement (NALP). We collected data on Women, Men, American Indian, Asian- American/Pacific-Islanders, Black, Hispanic, Multi-racial, Openly Gay, and Disabilities. These categories are not mutually exclusive, e.g., the women category includes both white women and women of color. In future studies, we will explore collecting data by race and gender enabling us to compare white men, white women, men of color, and women of color. We gathered data on the current associate pool by class year, total associate composition, special counsel/senior attorney positions, partners, new partner promotes and lateral hires, and those on formal full-time and part-time flexible work arrangements by level.

Contributors to the Office for Diversity

The Association wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of the following law firms, corporations and organizations whose generosity helped fund our Office for Diversity, which supports the participating firms and corporations in their efforts to promote diversity.

Credit Suisse First Boston Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Deloitte Dewey Ballantine LLP Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP LexisNexis Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP Minority Corporate Counsel Association Morgan Stanley Viacom Inc. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Signatories to the Statement of Diversity Principles

Allen & Overy Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Morrison & Foerster LLP Altria Group Inc. & Loewy P.C. Moses & Singer LLP American Express Company Freshfields Bruckhaus New York Life Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C. Deringer LLP Insurance Co. Arent Fox PLLC Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Nixon Peabody LLP Norris Jacobson LLP Arnold & Porter McLaughlin & Marcus PA Fulbright & Jaworski LLP Baker & Hostetler LLP General Electric Company O’Melveny & Myers LLP Bingham McCutchen LLP Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Orrick, Herrington Brown Raysman Millstein Griffinger & Vecchione & Sutcliffe LLP Felder & Steiner LLP Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP Patterson, Belknap, Bryan Cave LLP Hawkins Delafield & Wood Webb & Tyler LLP Cadwalader, Wickersham & LLP Paul, Hastings, Janofsky Taft LLP Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & & Walker LLP Cahill Gordon Bach LLP Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, & Reindel LLP Heller Ehrman White & Wharton & Garrison LLP Carter Ledyard McAuliffe LLP PepsiCo. Inc. & Milburn LLP Hogan & Hartson LLP Pillsbury Winthrop LLP Holland & Knight LLP Chadbourne & Parke LLP Pitney Hardin LLP Honeywell International Cleary, Gottlieb, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP Steen & Hamilton Hunton & Williams Proskauer Rose LLP Clifford Chance U.S. LLP Jenkens & Gilchrist Parker Salans Conway Farrell Chapin LLP Schoeman Updike & Curtin & Kelly J.P. Morgan Chase Kaufman LLP Coudert Brothers LLP Kaye Scholer LLP Schulte Roth & Zabel LLC Covington & Burling Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Shearman & Sterling LLP Cravath, Swaine King & Spalding LLP Sidley Austin Brown & Moore LLP Kirkland & Ellis LLP & Wood LLP Credit Suisse First Boston Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP Simpson Thacher Davis & Gilbert LLP KMZ Rosenman & Bartlett LLP Davis Polk & Wardwell Kramer Levin Naftalis & Skadden, Arps, Slate, Frankel LLP Davis Wright Meagher & Flom LLP Latham & Watkins LLP & Tremaine LLP LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & Sonnenschein Nath & Debevoise & Plimpton LLP MacRae LLP Rosenthal LLP Dechert LLP Loeb & Loeb LLP Stroock & Stroock Deloitte Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw & Lavan LLP Dewey Ballantine LLP LLP Sullivan & Cromwell LLP Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Menaker & Herrmann LLP Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP Oshinsky LLP Merck & Co., Inc. Thelen Reid & Priest LLP DLA Piper Rudnick Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Viacom Inc. Gray Cary US LLP Metropolitan Life Insurance Wachtell, Lipton, Dorsey & Whitney LLP Company Rosen & Katz Edwards & Angell LLP Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & Wasserman Grubin McCloy LLP Epstein Becker & Rogers LLP Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Green, P.C. Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP & Lerach LLP Estee Lauder Companies White & Case LLP Morgan, Lewis Fitzpatrick, Cella, Willkie Farr & Gallagher & Bockius LLP Harper & Scinto Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale Morgan Stanley and Dorr LLP