Illustration by Francesco Bongiorni
Looking at diversity statistics is always a good test of whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, and the 2013 Diversity Scorecard is no exception. In our latest survey of the largest law firms in the country, we found that last year minority lawyers made up 13.9 percent of all lawyers at the 228 firms that responded to our survey. While that's up slightly from the previous year, it's exactly the same percentage as in 2008, before the recession took hold and the overall minority percentage began to dip. If you're an optimist, you'll say that our newest survey shows that minorities have recovered the ground they lost in the economic downturn. If you're a pessimist, you'll point out that there's been no real increase in diversity in five years. You might also note that the percentage of African American attorneys remains markedly lower than it was in 2008.
Read the complete 2013 Diversity Scorecard report here.
This article originally appeared in The American Lawyer under the headline “Same As It Ever Was.”
