We surveyed the country’s largest and highest grossing firms: the 250 biggest firms as ranked by The National Law Journal and Am Law 200 firms as ranked by The American Lawyer. All told, 202 firms reported ethnic data.

Firms are identified by the office with the most attorneys. If no more than 45 percent of a firm’s attorneys are in one region, it is deemed national; if more than 40 percent are outside the United States, it is labeled international. Partner data is for equity and nonequity partners. Nonpartner figures include associates, special counsel, and other staff attorneys. We do not include contact attorneys. “Other minority” covers Native Americans and those who report being multiracial. Unless otherwise noted, all data was of September 30, 2009.

In our view, ethnic diversity is defined primarily in American terms. When you ask whether a firm is achieving ethnic diversity, you’re asking how well it’s doing in hiring minority Americans. For this reason, we now ask firms to count only the minority attorneys working in U.S. offices. Dividing that number by the number of all attorneys a firm employs in the U.S. gives us a percentage of a firm’s U.S. attorneys who are members of ethnic minorities.

Our diversity score was created by adding the minority percentage of all U.S. attorneys at the firms surveyed to the minority percentage of all U.S. partners at those firms.

NONRESPONDENTS

Armstrong Teasdale
Balch & Bingham
Bond, Schoeneck & King
Briggs and Morgan
Calfee, Halter & Griswold
Clausen Miller
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott
Fish & Richardson
Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harder & Scinto
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy
GrayRobinson
Herrick, Feinstein
Hiscock & Barclay
Hodgson Russ
Holme Roberts & Owen
Jackson Kelly
Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro
Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
Lathrop & Gage
Leonard, Street and Deinard
Lewis and Roca
Lindquist & Vennum
Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell
McDermott Will & Emery
McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter
Miller & Martin
Nexsen Pruet
Patton Boggs
Phillips Lytle
Porter Wright Morris & Arthur
Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren
Robinson & Cole
Saul Ewing
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis
Sills Cummis & Gross
Smith, Gambrell & Russell
Steptoe & Johnson
Stevens & Lee
Stoel Rives
Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
Sullivan & Worcester
Waller Landsen Dortch & Davis
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice