Halfway Home — The Stories of Minority Partners

CMCP - California Minority Counsel Program
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[author: Robert White]

“Structurally, law firms as a group are following an unremarkable strategy of diversity efforts with little impetus to attempt anything that might be considered particularly dramatic or innovative, until one firm or another is able to demonstrate that a new approach might merit consideration.” — Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession, “The Business Case for Diversity: Reality or Wishful Thinking?”

Blame the business structure of law firms, implicit bias, pipeline issues, or just the intransigent unwillingness of those in power to play fair, but when it comes to increasing the number of attorneys of color in law firms the needle has moved only slightly after decades of effort. Barely 7% of law firm partners nationally are minorities.

This article’s focus is on the lessons that can be extracted from stories of minority lawyers and firms that are using both time tested and new strategies to ensure the individual success of minority partners and the leveling of the playing field in the legal profession.

Here are the stories we can learn from:

1. Start Early in Preparing Attorneys for Partnership

Erick Howard has practiced at Shartsis Friese LLP for 14 years, and became its first African American partner in 2008. For Erick, grooming for partnership started early when a name partner began to mentor him and talk directly about his career path and what he should and should not be doing. That advice included learning that doing good work is not enough; it is also important to speak up in meetings and be visible in business generation efforts even if they don’t yield results immediately.

Shartsis puts an early emphasis on business development, giving associates a share of the business they generate and discussing business generation as part of all associate reviews. The firm’s inclusion of associates in administration is also great preparation for partnership: “associates are on all the firm’s committees, including the finance and the management committees, which gives them insights into how decisions are made.”

 

2. Open Up the Firm’s Approach for Networking and Business Development

Gloria Lee, newly minted Client Relations Partner at Rutan & Tucker, LLP says her life didn’t really change when she became a partner because she has the same role — she is a dedicated business developer. Her firm created a special role for her to focus on generating business opportunities for herself and for other attorneys, something she has done very well, bringing in more than 60 new clients in two years in several different practice areas.

Gloria attributed part of her success to leveraging the networks she has access to and has developed as a woman and diverse attorney, including the California Minority Counsel Program (CMCP). By being positioned to listen to issues of in-house counsel who are also women or diverse, she was also able to advocate for her firm to support diversity initiatives that will let them better meet outside counsel’s desire for diverse work teams.

3. Pay Attention to How Minority Attorneys Are Connected within the Firm

Chahira Solh just attended her first Crowell & Moring LLP partner retreat. Making important connections — internal connections in particular — to help her career growth took some work, and remains a challenge. As an associate she had to push through feeling disconnected from attorneys at her firm. Sometimes she wondered if attorneys at the firm hesitated to introduce themselves to her or initiate a conversation out of fear of mispronouncing her (Lebanese) name.

Ironically, once she became a partner these connections became easier. The partner on-boarding process has required her to interface with attorneys she didn’t know, and in those interactions opportunities for work have frequently arisen. In general it felt like the firm was even more vested in her success when she became a partner. 

She wasn’t initially comfortable with the personal aspect of relationship building with prospective clients, but mentors have helped by coaching her on ways to connect by “talking shop” and letting herself be comfortable as the relationship develops rather than trying immediately to find “social” things in common with a prospective client.

4. Build Systems to Promote and Keep Minority Partners

A new partner works under a fantastic amount of stress. Suddenly she is responsible for keeping herself busy as well as other more junior attorneys, supervising associates, taking on increased administrative responsibilities, and figuring out how to live with a new compensation structure that includes capital contributions and doesn’t include associate bonuses.

Such has been the experience of Tiffany Thomas, an African American partner at Reed Smith, where she has spent her entire legal career. She admits the pressure she feels may be self-imposed; she is driven to succeed, and the formula that has worked for her has always been to work harder than anyone else. One of the ways the firm continued to support her after she became a partner, she says, is by valuing her contacts and involvement in professional associations such as Black Women Lawyers of Northern California.

Laura Maechtlen, a Latina partner at Seyfarth Shaw, described her firm’s multilevel approach to promoting and retaining partners, especially diverse partners. In Seyfarth’s independent quarterly talent review the Diversity Committee and Seyfarth’s professional development team work together to ensure that attorneys are on track to reach their career goals or to provide them with personalized assistance as needed or requested. A two-year coaching program creates cohorts of female income partners on the equity partner track who are provided team coaching with an outside consultant, mentoring, and individual business development support. Laura also spearheaded development of Seyfarth's “Triad Program,” in which high-performing diverse senior associates are connected with both an executive-level sponsor and a senior partner mentor for a year-long mentoring program designed to help support progression to partnership.

Wrap-up: Promoting and Developing Minority Partners as Rainmakers Is Critical to the Long-term Diversification of the Profession

Virtually all of the partners I’ve spoken with expressed the belief that their ongoing development as rainmakers gives — or will give — them added influence in leading and pushing their firms on diversity issues, whether or not they sit on the diversity committee.

There are many challenges still in front of them as they try to take this next step in their development. Forming the relationships that will generate business is a major undertaking. The Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession (IILP) found in its study, “The Business Case for Diversity,” that 60% of diverse partners are not the billing or relationship partners for any of the corporations that expressed an interest in diversity, and another 21.3% serve as the relationship or billing partner for only one of these corporations.

Promoting minority partners helps firms in improving their bottom line and in increasing their ability to attract and develop more minority attorneys. As Erick Howard noted, his elevation to partnership helps the firm’s reputation for integrity and commitment to developing its own talent. Minority women partners in particular told how, on their announcement of making partner, they were told by other women of color that partnership now seemed like more of a real possibility for them.

The legal profession has a long way to go in diversifying itself, but from these stories we can draw hope and positive lessons as we struggle toward making our profession fair and inclusive for minority attorneys.

Robert White is Executive Director for the California Minority Counsel Program, a leading legal diversity organization for business attorneys; he was formerly Director of Alumni Career Services at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. This article was submitted on behalf of the NALP Diversity and Inclusion Section. Originally published in May Bulleting, NALP.

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