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Minority experience in large law firms

Interesting report by the Minority Law Journal (summary here) about experiences of mid-level associates at large law firms, broken down by racial background.

African-American associates are less satisfied overall. They perceive that they need to work harder than other associates to get to the same level. They have fewer billable hours than other groups, although they take less vacation. Even though they report working the same hours as everyone else, they also report billing one fewer hour per week and 100+ fewer in a year. They get significantly smaller bonuses. The study attributes that to the concentration of African-American attorneys in lower-compensation areas like Atlanta, but doesn't actually present statistics on the geographical distribution.

African-American associates have only slightly larger debts from low school than other groups, but have much higher overall debt loads when consumer debt is included. The study wasn't detailed enough to determine why, but it seems likely that they don't have as much financial support from other sources, like their families.

The last section of the study asks about where the respondents see themselves five years from now and why they would make a career change. African-American associates disproportionately said they were dissatisfied and planned to leave law as a career.

The data on Asian-American associates, although I doubt anyone will look at that too much, is also interesting. Asian-American associates tended to be more satisfied with their firms and actually received higher salaries and bonuses than other groups. They were more likely to report that their workload was too heavy, in contrast with African-Americans who said their workload was too light, and that if they left the firm, it would be for work-life balance. For the "five years in the future" question, a much higher percentage of Asian-Americans than any other group responded, "I honestly don't know."

Full post as published by Magic Cookie on October 01, 2008 (boomark / email).