This is an interesting and disappointing story from the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-diversity11oct11,1,661263.story?ctrack=2&cset=true) concerning diversity, or the lack thereof, in large L.A. law firms. One would almost think that perhaps some of these firms should shift their home offices to this area to better fit with their employment practices. Although, frankly the LA figures would be stellar compared to the reality one sees in just about all larger law firms in this area. For the most part, larger law firms remain bastions of white only partners with a few actually having several female partners. Of course, there are NO openly gay associates that I know of, much less partners. All in all, a sad state of affairs. Here are highlights from the Times story:
Large Los Angeles law firms have poor diversity records, with the numbers of female, black, Latino, Asian and gay partners and associates lagging significantly behind their representation in the city's population, according to a study released Wednesday.The 17 Los Angeles-area firms in the report have three or fewer African American partners; all but one have three or fewer Latino partners, and half have three or fewer Asian American partners, placing the percentage of partners in those ethnic groups at less than 5%. In contrast, 2005 census data show that African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans constitute 9.7%, 46.8% and 13.1% of the population in Los Angeles County.
Three firms have no African American partners, one has no Latino partners, one has no Asian American partners, and three firms have no publicly declared lesbian or gay partners.
Similar percentages were found in other large metropolitan areas. Women make up less than 25% of the partners at all 74 firms surveyed in New York with 100 or more lawyers, while 27 of those firms have no Latino partner, 25 have no African American partner, and 21 have no Asian American partner.Of 46 firms surveyed in Washington, 17 have no Latino partner, seven have no African American partner, and 13 have no Asian American partner. The picture is somewhat better in the San Francisco Bay Area. Still, only 7 of 31 firms have 25% or more female partners, with the highest figure 32.7%.
Meanwhile, "purists" worry about passage of a less than all inclusive version of ENDA. This data shows that there is a HUGE need to get some version of ENDA, perfect or not, passed ASAP.
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