ABA Survey Shows Improvement for Diverse Associates, Status Quo for Partners - Articles

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ABA Survey Shows Improvement for Diverse Associates, Status Quo for Partners

Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on May 17, 2022

The third installment of the American Bar Association’s Model Diversity Survey is out and shows that large law firms hired more Hispanic, Black and Asian associates leading up to the pandemic, but continued to struggle with moving diverse lawyers into partnerships. Michelle Behnke, chair of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession told Law.com: “I wasn’t terribly surprised to not see a lot of movement in the equity partnership space for diverse partners. That is not new. It is one of the things we are putting more of an emphasis on.” The survey also showed that attrition rates in 2019 were higher for women (16%) than men (11%). “This is a cause of concern for us,” Behnke said. “If we were already seeing more pronounced attrition among women, it will be hard to look at what we end up seeing as a result of the pandemic.”