And the researchers claim to debunk the myth that ethnic minority lawyers are not able to join the partnership tables at large, established corporate firms, saying ‘quite the opposite is true’.

Diversity pockets

In the research findings – published by the National Association for Law Placement – the report’s author, Indiana University law professor William Henderson, writes: ‘Significant diversity tends to exist in pockets that follow distinctive demographic patterns … minority lawyers' willingness to enter a market and persist at a firm is likely influenced by number of people from the same minority group who have ascended to the partner level. If you are an African-American lawyer, the wind is at your back in [Washington] DC or Atlanta, but in many branch offices in Dallas, Phoenix or Boston you will be breaking barriers.’
Prof Henderson acknowledges that while the aggregate statistics regarding diversity within the US legal profession ‘are not very encouraging’ – as fewer than 5 per cent of partners at corporate law firms are from ethnic minorities – the disaggregated data shows improvements.
‘We see racial sub-groups making substantial partnership inroads in specific geographic markets,’ he writes. ‘For African-Americans, it is Atlanta and Washington DC; for Asians, it is Los Angeles, San Francisco, and [the] Pacific Northwest/Rocky Mountain region; for Hispanics, it is Houston, Dallas, Miami and LA.’

Equity factor

However, commentators on the web site of the ABA Journal point out that ethnic minority partnership figures could be skewed by the fact that many of those lawyers fall in the salaried category rather than having full equity.
Meanwhile, the Journal reports on the latest figures from US recruitment specialist web site Vault, which ranks the top 25 law firms in the country in terms of diversity. The top five are: Florida-based Carlton Fields, Boston’s Ropes & Gray, Littler Mendelson from San Francisco, Manhattan white shoe practice Debevoise & Plimpton and Chicago’s Jenner & Block.