Earlier this year the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court published demographic data collected from attorneys during the 2018-2019 annual attorney registration. Based on the self-report of attorneys in the commonwealth, 78.05% of attorneys registered identify as white. The remaining 9% identified as: Black/African American (4%), Asian (2%), Hispanic/Latino (1.4%), two or more races (less than 1%), and American Indian/Alaskan Native (less than 1%). Year after year, there are seminars, summits, retreats and roundtables regarding these anemic numbers. These conversations are frequently focused on the Philadelphia legal community. The numbers here in the Lehigh Valley, which includes the Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton metropolitan areas, are even more lackluster in the legal ranks.

When I raise the question of diversity efforts to friends and colleagues in the Lehigh Valley, the responses are uniform. One common refrain, which I heard this summer at a legal conference focused on diversity and inclusion, focused on meritocracy. “We hire (and promote) based on merit” or “Shouldn’t we be a meritocracy.” This response is not unique to the Lehigh Valley, as it pervades the consciousness of even those who mean well, or do not actively intend to do harm. The second common refrain is that young and diverse talent does not want to live and work in the Lehigh Valley. “We would love to have more attorneys of color, but they are all going to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.” I hear this mantra not only from colleagues who were born and raised in the Lehigh Valley, but also from my colleagues who actually chose to relocate to this area.

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