Diversity Lacking in the Legal Profession

Stanford University Law students have turned the tables on prospective employers.

Instead of worrying about what big law firms think when they’re perusing their resumes, the students have decided to do a little perusing of their own. They’ve begun handing out “diversity report cards” and grading the firms on the number of gay, female and minority employees they’ve hired.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, some law firms got a passing grade, while others scored abysmally.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, a New York firm, earned the highest grade. Fifty percent of the firm’s associates are women, 8.7 percent are black, 8.3 percent are Hispanic and 4.5 percent are openly gay. Herrick, Feinstein had the lowest grade, with less than seven percent of associates who are racial minorities.

Diversity is also lacking at the highest court in the land. An article last week by Mark Sherman of the Associated Press reported that black lawyers have been rare at the Supreme Court. Not one has stood before Chief Justice Roberts and his comrades in the last 365 days.