Today, at a relatively sparsely attended session at its annual meeting in San Francisco (the session did take place at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon), the American Bar Association released its 2019 Profile of the Legal Profession Report and offered a blunt panel discussion on the findings.
Among other things, this first of its kind Report attempts to summarize a number of recent trends of the profession in such areas as diversity, women, legal education, technology and more. The Report was produced by the ABA Media Relations and Strategic Communications Division and drew upon statistics from the ABA, the federal government and various non profit groups. The plan is to update it annually.
Its true, as ABA President, Bob Carlson, pointed out in introducing the panel, “the profession evolves very slowly.” But the big take away from the Report: there are a number of troubling things going on with our profession that simply can’t wait for slow evolution.
Diversity? Not So Much
A whooping 85% of the profession is still white and male. 85%.
For example, while the Report’s introduction points out that the profession changes every year, much of the story contained in the Report is unfortunately the same. For example, a whooping 85% of the profession is still white and male. 85%.
Minorities compose only some 8% of the partners in law firms, roughly the same as in 2016 and not a whole lot better than 10 years ago. 80% of our federal judges are white. Almost 75% are men. That’s an incredible lack of progress for a key metric.
It is true as Patricia Lee, chair, ABA Diversity and Inclusion Center and panelist, noted: there has been some diversity growth in each year but it isn’t enough. Says