ALM Media's newspaper The Legal Intelligencer recently published a two-part story of their original survey of diversity at plaintiff's firms in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the results (Part 1) of their research provides evidence that diversity among attorneys at plaintiffs firms in Pennsylvania is"slim to nonexistent." Of the 24 plaintiffs firms surveyed, 17 had no attorneys who were a racial or ethnic minority, and the few firms that did have attorneys of color usually had only one.
The percentage of women attorneys overall was about 23% -- 70 out of 301 attorneys. There were only eight firms where women made up more than 30 percent of their firms' attorneys. But the difference in the percentage of women attorneys varied widely from 50 percent to zero. Five firms had no female attorneys. In Part 2, firms leaders and industry experts were interviewed for suggestions as to how to "refine" the firms' recruiting efforts.
Diversity data for NLJ 250 and Am Law 200 firms is available from ALM Research Online as part of the 2007 Diversity Scorecard, an Excel spreadsheet product. An additional 13 years' worth of data is available to premium subscribers in the online database.
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