Legal Career Resources

How Can Law Firms Hire and Retain More Diverse Attorneys?
Download PDF
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Photo courtesy of Law Sarasota.

Photo courtesy of Law Sarasota.

Summary: How can law firms increase the number of minority attorneys? Leading recruiter Harrison Barnes has some insights.

Firms actively want to increase their minority applicant pool, but what can firms and applicants do to bridge the gap? Leading legal recruiter Harrison Barnes of BCG Attorney Search has worked extensively with both law firms and diverse candidates, and he offered some insights into how to recruit and retain diversity in his blog post, Law Firm Diversity: They All Talk the Talk, But It’s Harder to Walk the Walk.

  
What
Where


From his years of professional experience, Barnes has seen law firms claim to seek diversity, but then revert to old habits of hiring the same type of people who fit traditional law firm culture.

Barnes mentioned that time and time again, candidates with diverse backgrounds (race, sexual orientation, parental duties, etc.) had come to him after they had tried to find law firm jobs on their own to no avail. From his observations, he learned that although law firms said they wanted diverse attorneys, they tended not to hire them.

Barnes shared the story of a gay candidate who had almost $2,000,000 worth of business, a decade of experience, and an esteemed law degree but still could not get hired, despite several interviews. The attorney decided to revamp his resume by highlighting his diversity–his interest in LGBT groups and issues–and then the interview requests simply stopped. Barnes eventually suggested to the attorney to hide his sexual orientation and see what happened. In the candidate’s next interview, the attorney ended up getting an offer.

Get JD Journal in Your Mail

Subscribe to our FREE daily news alerts and get the latest updates on the most happening events in the legal, business, and celebrity world. You also get your daily dose of humor and entertainment!!




Barnes noted other examples of law firms shying away from diversity, and he stated that although he believed law firms wanted to hire people who broke the homogenous environment, law firms fear people who could possibly threaten the old culture and therefore shy away from true diversity.

So what can candidates do to market themselves to law firms? And what can law firms do to actually create diverse environments, not just talk about them? In his article on BCG, Barnes offers some valuable insight.

To read his full post, click here.

Source: BCG Attorney Search 



 

RELEVANT JOBS

Associate Attorney

USA-PA-Exton

ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY McKenna Snyder LLC, a law firm in Exton, PA has an immediate opening for an ex...

Apply now

Attorney

USA-MI-Sturgis

Qualifications: HaasCaywood is seeking associate attorneys for our Coldwater and Sturgis, Michiga...

Apply now

Attorney

USA-MI-Coldwater

Qualifications: HaasCaywood is seeking associate attorneys for our Coldwater and Sturgis, Michiga...

Apply now

Deputy General Counsel / Senior Deputy General Counsel

USA-CA-Sacramento

Cal Cities Culture and Mission Cal Cities is dedicated to creating a collaborative and inclusive ...

Apply now

BCG FEATURED JOB

Locations:

Keyword:



Search Now

Education Law Attorney

USA-CA-El Segundo

El Segundo office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law attorney with ...

Apply Now

Education Law Attorney

USA-CA-Carlsbad

Carlsbad office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law attorney with 4-...

Apply Now

Education Law and Public Entity Attorney

USA-CA-El Segundo

El Segundo office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks an education law and public ent...

Apply Now

Most Popular

SEARCH IN ARCHIVE

To Top