The New Jersey State Bar Association has made advances in leadership diversity since it began allocating seats on its trustee board for members of underrepresented groups, the association says in court papers, as it seeks to overturn a ruling finding it established an unlawful quota system for filling leadership roles.

Only one Black attorney and eight women were on the association’s board of trustees in 2010, before the latest version of the system of allocating seats was implemented. But in 2021 those numbers rose to four and 19, respectively, the group said in its bid for an interlocutory appeal of a ruling declaring its allocation of trustee seats discriminatory.