Despite diversity growth stalling in some areas within the summer associate classes, new data from The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) shows continued overall advancement in the representation of women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals within U.S. law firms — especially women, whom now constitute a little over 50% of associates for the first time in more than 30 years.
Women also experienced record growth in representation at the partnership level, but progress continues to lag substantially behind that of associates, with women comprising a record 27.76% of all partners, according to NALP’s annual Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms based on information from the 2023 NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE).
People of color also advanced at the partnership level, but likewise still lag behind their representation among associates, with partners of color comprising 12.01% of all partners and 30.15% of associates.
NALP reported that women and people of color remain significantly underrepresented within the partnership ranks.
Nikia Gray, executive director of NALP, said they began tracking law firm diversity data in 1991, 121 years after the first woman graduated law school in the United States. At that time, women accounted for only a little over 38% of law firm associates.
“While progress has been made, women continue to face substantial barriers that disproportion-ately can force them out of private practice,” she said. “Clearly, there is still much work to be done to support women as they progress in their careers.”
For the first time, Black and Latina women each accounted for at least 1% of all partners, but overall, women of color still account for less than 5% of partners.
Silicon Valley and Miami had the largest percentage of lawyers of color, at 41.18% and 39.51%, respectively.
Despite improvements within the associate and partner ranks in 2023, the share of summer associates of color declined for the first time since 2017, dropping by three-fourths of a percentage point to 42.27%. However, summer associates remain more diverse by gender and race/ethnicity as compared to the demographics of recent law school graduates. This decrease in representation of summer associates of color was driven by a decline in the percentage of Black and multiracial summer associates.
“Based on the figures for summer associates from the 2023 report, in the short-term, we can anticipate the likelihood of increasing representation of both women and people of color in the associate figures,” Gray said. “In the broader context of last summer’s Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and the more recent attacks on law firm DEI initiatives, we are concerned about potential future impacts to the diversity of incoming law school classes, summer associate programs, and the profession as whole, so we will be watching these figures closely.”
One area where NALP has seen growth, Gray said, is in the percentage of lawyers and law students/graduates identifying as gender non-binary.
“NALP first began tracking data on gender non-binary lawyers and summer associates in 2020, and while reporting is still somewhat limited compared to other demographic data, more than three-quarters of law offices reported tracking information on non-binary lawyers,” she added.
Read the entire Report on Diversity at U.S. Law Firms at www.nalp.org/reportondiversity.
