The percentage of minority attorneys at the nation’s largest firms held relatively steady last year—and considering how fragile diversity numbers can be, we’ll consider that good news. According to our latest Diversity Scorecard, 13.6 percent of lawyers at the nation’s largest firms in 2011 were minority lawyers, compared to 13.9 percent in 2010. But we’re not too worried about the slight dip, for two reasons. First, we’ve tweaked our methodology slightly. Second, more firms responded to our survey in 2011, and while that’s generally positive, many of the new respondents have less diversity, thus bringing down the overall average.



Previous Diversity Scorecard coverage :: 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

THE FEATURES

A Truer Picture A new methodology for our Diversity Scorecard better captures the situation of minority lawyers at the nation’s top firms.
From the Archives Back on Track? The percentage of minority lawyers at large firms has edged up, erasing the decline reflected in 2010′s Diversity Scorecard.

The Diversity Scorecard Our annual ranking of large U.S. law firms according to their percentage of minority attorneys and their percentage of minority partners