Asian and Native American female lawyers get the least amount of big law business, study finds
Asian women in law are chosen least often by corporations looking to hire counsel, a new study by the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession found.
Asian women in law are chosen least often by corporations looking to hire counsel, a new study by the Institute for Inclusion in the Legal Profession found. And experts say the vast majority of diversity spending goes to hiring white women.
“When corporate clients, even those who value diversity, are thinking about outside counsel, they are not giving significant amounts of business to women, to people of color,” said Sandra Yamate, CEO of the IILP. “Native American women and Asian American women are the poorest in terms of this.”
Nearly 72% of corporations surveyed said they give less than 10% of their business to Asian American lawyers, the study found. Less than a quarter said they gave no business at all to Asian American lawyers. Native American lawyers see a similar lack of representation. While almost half of corporations said they give less than 10% of their business to Native Americans attorneys, 41% said they gave them no business at all.
It’s a fact that makes it notoriously hard for Asians, particularly women, to advance in the legal profession, she said. Though Asian Americans in law enter the private sector at the highest rates, they advance at the lowest.
“The conversion rate from associate to partner is the lowest for Asian Americans,” she said. “This data shows a really good reason why. They’re not getting business.”
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