The American legal market's contraction resulted in a dearth of legal jobs, and a flood of attorneys willing to fill them. But a new report brings to light the disproportionate impact that the financial crisis had on African-American and other minority attorneys.
"Overall, big firms shed 6 percent of their attorneys between 2008 and 2009 -- and, amid the bloodletting, lost 9 percent of their minority lawyers," reports Emily Barker at The American Lawyer. The periodical based its findings on survey responses from 191 large law firms, seeking employment data in both years, and just released "The Diversity Scorecard 2010," available here.
In sum, the survey found: [Brackets, link in original.]
The data shows that, while minority lawyers as a whole lost ground, not all groups were affected equally. In proportional terms, African-Americans lost the most: the percentage of all black lawyers fell by 13 percent (462 lawyers), with the number of black nonpartners sliding by a startling 16 percent. Translation: Almost one in six African-American nonpartners left the surveyed firms in the space of a year without being replaced [see "In Retreat"].