Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Diversity of law firms in the U.S. - statistics and facts
As issues of societal inequity have entered public consciousness and transcended into the workplace, demand for more transparency regarding diversity and inclusion have risen side-by-side with one another. The legal profession in the United States is still perceived to be somewhat behind other industries when it comes to diversity and inclusion, particularly in more senior positions within law firms. In 2022, approximately three-quarters of equity partners working for the best 100 law firms for women in the United States were men, and roughly five percent of the total number of equity partners came from a non-white background. This suggests there is still significant underrepresentation of gender, race, and ethnicity within U.S. law firms, hence the demands and general interest for these diversity figures to be made public.
Low share of women in senior positions
A common theme that has exposed itself through the publishing of diversity and inclusion reports is the underrepresentation of women in senior positions. The same can be said for non-white people working in this sector, though the gap between the gender distribution of the U.S. population and the gender distribution of senior positions in the legal sector is especially large. Meanwhile, almost all administrative positions at leading law firms are filled by women. For instance, close to 100 percent of secretaries working at Linklaters were women, however within partner positions this figure fell to 25 percent. Kirkland & Ellis, the leading law firm in the United States by gross revenue are another example of this, with a significantly small amount of female equity partners working for the firm in 2022.A more representative future?
Despite the current figures, employment trends within the legal services industry have generally shown signs of better representation for the future as the share of the non-white workforce in some positions slightly increased over the past decade. The changing population demographics in the United States and the annual publication of diversity and inclusion reports by many law firms have helped to bring these issues to the forefront of hiring agendas. By 2060, the U.S. Census Bureau has predicted that non-Hispanic white Americans will no longer make up an outright majority of the distribution of the population. These employment figures, therefore, have begun to show signs of a more representative future.
