New Study Finds Gender and Racial Bias Endemic in Legal Profession

A new study confirms widespread gender and racial bias permeates hiring, promotion, assignments and compensation in the legal industry, the ABA reports today. Fifty-eight percent of women attorneys of color, and half of white women lawyers surveyed say they have been mistaken for administrative staff or janitors, in contrast to only seven percent of white male lawyers reporting a similar occurrence, according to the new study, You Can’t Change What You Can’t See. Conducted by the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, on behalf of The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and The American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, the report examines implicit gender and racial bias in legal workplaces and offers new solutions and tools for interrupting bias across the legal profession.