As we recognize Black History Month in the year 2016, we have no doubt that good intentions on matters of diversity abound at the country’s major law firms. Our profession, and our world, are much different than they were in 1938, when two Jewish lawyers founded our law firm, in part because they had been denied opportunity at other firms of their day. The fact that we’ve moved on from such overt and pervasive discrimination is good news indeed.
The more difficult news is this: For large law firms and the lawyers who work at them, having good intentions on diversity is not enough to ensure progress. Black lawyers account for only 3 percent of all lawyers at the nation’s largest firms, and just 1.8 percent of partners, according to The American Lawyer’s Diversity Scorecard. Perhaps more troubling than the small numbers themselves is the fact that they are moving in the wrong direction, having fallen off since the onset of the recession.
