Workplace Diversity: Employee Trends at Law Firms

  

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In modern society, it is vital for companies to ensure equal opportunities and fair hiring practices when looking through job candidates. Workplace diversity fosters the equal treatment of culturally diverse people, which includes people with unique group identities, such as gender and race.

According to a recent edition of the NALP Directory of Legal Employers, the percentage of minority lawyers in the U.S. rose to 12.70% in 2011 from 12.40% in 2010, an increase of 372 minority workers. Also, minority women account for 6.23% in 2011, as compared to 6.20% in 2010. However, just under one-third of lawyers are women, with 32.61% in 2011, a drop when compared with 32.69% in 2010. In the past 19 years, research has shown an increase in the presence of women and minorities in both partner and associate ranks.

James Leipold, NALP’s Executive Director states, “The 2011 figures reveal that a year later, while the figures for minority associates have bounced back, the overall number of women associates actually declined further. This is a significant finding.”  

In respect to the future of law firms, he notes, “The newest data suggests that the temporary set-back for minority representation has been reversed but that the representation of women among associates has continued to trend downward. The loss of women has slowed, but at a time when far too few women make up the partnership ranks of US law firms, this is not a trend that can be ignored.”  

A culturally diverse workplace environment is important in creating a productive industry, made up of talented individuals from a multitude of different backgrounds and ideas.  Here are some of the ways workplace diversity enhances work performance:

• Reduction of workplace discrimination

• Collaboration between people of various cultural backgrounds leads to alternative ways of solving problems

• Employees become more tolerant of one another

• Pre-conceived notions and stereotypes are abandoned

• An environment of acceptance and value of workplace contributions is cultivated amongst employees

• Employee are free to work to their full potential

As research shows, workplace diversity is becoming more vital in employee selection for law firms throughout the country.