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2 October 2020Influential Women in IPJayne Durden

Levelling up diversity: tech is one of the ways forward

The potent combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in social consciousness heralded by the rise to prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement is having a profound impact on just about every industry and business.

These twin forces for change are driving a radical rethink of deeply enshrined mindsets and behaviours, not only in terms of where and how we work, but also who does what work and the removal of bias in allocating work and opportunity.

For traditionally conservative industries such as legal and IP, that change may be even more marked. Many law firms, for example, will need to re-examine policies relating to diversity and inclusion in addition to home and flexible working in order to remain competitive - in terms of their productivity and efficiency; as well as their attractiveness to talented legal professionals and to clients, many of whom will be undergoing similar self-examination regarding their own working practices and the type of suppliers they wish to work with going forward.

The need for change

A 2020 American Bar Association (ABA) report, “Left Out and Left Behind”, highlighted the under-representation of women—particularly women of colour—in the legal profession and higher rates of attrition, much of which is down to lack of advancement opportunities.

The report noted that not much has changed over the past 20 years: women of colour represent only 2% of all equity partners at large law firms. Looking more broadly across law firms, the report noted:  “Despite the fact that women of colour now comprise almost 15% of all associates, the percentage of women of colour partners has remained stuck below 4%.”

This is borne out by the experience of “Angela”, a US-based African-American lawyer I spoke to for this feature. She worked at several prominent law firms before moving in-house.

Angela started in practice at the same time as a group of other black women friends. All worked hard for their respective firms and were excited by the opportunities they hoped would come their way. However, within a few years, they were disillusioned, realising that they were not progressing at their firms to the extent that their white (particularly their white male) colleagues were.

Angela says: “Firms don’t set out to be racist but allow black lawyers to languish. From my own experience—and that of several other black lawyers I know—we are expected to achieve more, demonstrate that we have done more and be willing to do more than our white counterparts.

“The balance is how to stand up for yourself without being seen to be aggressive.”

But therein lies a dilemma. Angela explains: “Black women lawyers often feel they have to constantly try to be agreeable—or risk being stereotyped as an ‘angry black woman’.”

Women and women of colour are impacted in the way they progress through law firms, too. The ABA report referenced a 2018 Vault/Minority Corporate Counsel Association law firm diversity study, which found that, for every 100 associates, about 14 are women of colour and 32 are white women.

Using this as a baseline to measure progression through firms, the ABA said that, at non-equity partner level, for every 100, only about five are women of colour and 25 are white women, suggesting that about one-third of women of colour associates make it to non-equity partner compared with three-quarters of white women associates.

At equity partner level, for every 100, only three are women of colour and 17 are white women, suggesting that about one-quarter of women of colour associates make it to equity partner compared with one-half of white women associates.

The report added: “These numbers correspond with the finding that 46% of white attorneys are partners, while only 26% of attorneys of colour are. Taken together, this means that women and women of colour and attorneys of colour are all leaving law firms in significant numbers.”

To help address such attrition, the ABA report called on the legal profession to examine the structure of decision-making processes and the distribution of opportunities, noting that many practices, policies, and procedures, particularly of law firms, are out of step with the evolution of best practices in the corporate world at large.

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