Diversity in Law Firms: That Can Happen (finally) through Clients' Demands for More Black Lawyers

"Companies including Microsoft Corp. MSFT -1.10% , U.S. Bancorp, Uber Technologies Inc. UBER -1.91% and Intel Corp. INTC 0.39% are asking the law firms they hire to detail how many diverse lawyers they employ and whether those lawyers are assigned meaningful work. Firms that don’t have good answers might lose out on bonuses or not get hired." - Sara Randazzo, The Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2020.

This could be the way diversity will become standard in law firms - finally. What clients want is becoming the primary driver for change in law firms. Evidence of that is that client demand for lower fees resulted in law firms setting up captive Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs).

Right now the track record for hiring and promoting black lawyers isn't good. According to the National Association for Law Placement, only 2% of black lawyers are partners. And among the black lawyers who are hired in as associates, there have frequently been complaints that they are not assigned "meaningful work." That is, projects which provide enough billing hours and visibility and contracts within the law firm.

 

So, it shouldn't have been news that three black lawyers launched their own law firm Bradford Edwards & Varlach. 

 

The elephant in the room on this one is this: How far will powerful corporations like Microsoft extend their push to level the playing field for black professionals?

 

Will they, for example, provide support to the plaintiffs in racial bias lawsuit "Christine Crawford, et al. v. McDonald's USA."  Here is a copy of the complaint.

 

That lawsuit has in itself generated a second one against McDonald's USA alleging that black franchisees were not provided with what they needed to succeed. And that was allegedly because of racial discrimination.

 

What makes that particular lawsuit even higher profile than what would be expected is that the defendant is represented by a woman of color. She is former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, currently a law partner at Paul Weiss. Will that eventually become a flashpoint in media? That could depend on what strategies and tactics Lynch uses. Both Lynch and Paul Weiss took on a risk in accepting this account.

 

What seemed to be the tipping point in the beginning of the end of David Boies was how he represented Harvey Weinstein. The New Yorker outed much of that. Currently there are rumors that Boies' firm Boies Schiller is experiencing cash flow problems. 

 

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