Diversity Surveys

When I started this job a couple of years ago, I made a point of meeting with managing partners to get some understanding of what was going on in the Chicago legal community. To my surprise, in the first three or four conversations, they each raised the issue of diversity in their firms. To paraphrase their comments into one: ”We keep trying, but we just can’t figure it out.”

The numbers from Chicago Lawyer’s eighth annual diversity survey indicate that the job of increasing diversity remains a tough one. Almost 45 percent of associates are women, but of all law-firm partners, 20.1 percent are women, up from 19.2 percent a year ago. Minorities comprise 15.5 percent of associates now (16.3 percent in 2007), and 5 percent of partners, the same as last year.

— Robert Yates

The Count

Age
Law schools
Law firms
Summer associates
Public offices
Illinois courts
Cook County Circuit Court
Federal courts