The following is an excerpt from a Gene Commander article discussing the underrepresentation of women and people of color in the legal industry as well as the recent National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations event in Denver and its GOOD Guys panel, which engages like-minded men in efforts to promote gender and racial diversity in the legal profession. The article is available here.
The statistics on underrepresentation of women and people of color in the legal field are all too familiar. For example, women make up only a quarter of law firm partners nationwide, and a scant 12% of managing partners. And the picture is similar for both women and people of color in in-house legal departments. Although women under age 40 now outnumber their male counterparts among actively licensed attorneys in Colorado according to the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, further progress remains to be made when it comes to growing leadership roles and reducing the high rate of attrition in law firms. Maximizing career advancement for underrepresented attorneys will only happen when we engage the people who have been absent from the conversation for too long – men.