The New York Times recently featured an article that examined the high rate of attrition of black attorneys at major U.S. corporate law firms. The article referred to a study by Professor Sander, which attributed the phenomenon to the fact that many law firms lower their standards when hiring minority students. According to the study, black lawyers “are about one-fourth as likely to make partner as white lawyers from the same entering class of associates.” Critics of the study point to the fact that success at a law firm, particularly when considering who makes partner, has little to do with grades and more to do with “softer” intangibles like mentoring, assignments, networking abilities etc.
The debate around the study got me thinking about my experience interviewing and working with a big law firm. Though my stint at a firm was brief, by the time I was done it was very clear to me that while I could succeed and compete at that level, navigating that territory as a black female would require something “extra” beyond intellectual capability. I was quite particular about the kind of firm I wanted to work for during my summer as a 2L. I ended up at Covington for a number of reasons beyond the fact that it was a prestigious firm and was in the city where I wanted to practice. Some of the reasons :
1. The firm was very selective even at top schools, out of the 13 HLS students in my summer class about 8 were on law review…I didn’t want to deal with the stigma refers to where your assumed that you were not qualified to be there – it’s one thing to deal with that in law school, and another to deal with it where your ability to move up the ranks depends on your colleagues trusting your capabilities, on you getting juicy assignments, etc. It is very easy to spend 4-5 years at a firm posing, if folks are not feeling your storos.
2. Covington has a reputation for being intellectually rigorous. The quality of their work product was non-negotiable…better to ask for an extension than turn in a piece of work that is sub-standard. If I was going to spend hours toiling away at a firm, I was determined to at minimum gain excellent skills in the process.
3. I got a good vibe when I interviewed there, and they were the only firm I interviewed with that checked my references thoroughly so I felt that they had a good sense of what kind of an employee a would be beyond what was reflected in my credentials.
4. They were very supportive of public interest work and recognized that working in a firm is not the end-all of lawyering…many of the partners had spent time in both the public and private sector.
5. They had the highest percentage of black partners among their peers in D.C, so there was hope 
I had a fantastic summer there and would have gone back if it wasn’t for my decision to move back to Africa, but it was clear to me that staying at the firm long enough to make partner would be a huge challenge even with the above reasons and all measures the firm had taken to address “diversity issues.” And this brings me back to the debate around the article…even assuming that minorities and whites are hired based on the same standards as far as grades, I still think attrition would be a big problem.
Being a minority at the average big law firm is a lonely experience. For instance, during my summer at Covington, there was only one black female associate working there out of about 250 associates. While it was great to have role models in the partnership ranks, the fact that there was practically no black folk in the associate “trenches” was something to worry about. Some people might think this is no big deal, but at some point you get tired of fitting into other people’s point of reference. Like sometimes you want to come into work and discuss just how awful the BET music awards were without drawing blank stares The sad thing is that the low numbers create a vicious cycle – you get there, you struggle, you leave and firms keep battling with the issue of retention.
Also, in your average law firm, you generally get good work from partners who know you and like you – no easy task when you typically have little in common with the people who are supposed to get to know you. While I enjoyed most of my events that summer, I also went through one painful experience where I might have as well just slid and hid under the table because clearly no one had anything to say to me through most of the dinner.
Then you have to deal with things like worry about the fact that an attorney is going to ignore you, at some function for instance (or worse ask you to do admin work) because the only black people he/she generally sees at the firm are support staff. One of my classmates who summered with me arrived at a function at a restaurant a bit early than the rest of the associate/summer associate crew…the associate in charge of the function went up to her and assumed she was working at the restaurant (this despite the fact that everyone at the firm gets a “facebook” and associates hosting events are supposed flip through the book before each event to refresh themselves on who’s who…and for Chrissake we were only 3 black females there that summer).
(cue Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man)
I’m sure my experiences are not unique (and that’s at a progressive firm). My point is that while empirical studies are all well and good, there are some non-objective factors that do have an impact on one’s ability to stay the course at a firm and that will continue to cause high attrition rates even if hiring standards were equal.