It has often been said that a major problem in law firms is the inequality of representation within them. Law firms are traditionally dominated by white males, and partnership is often the exclusive domain of the senior white male. Many firms will adopt hiring policies with the view to promote more diversity within the workplace. However, these policies rarely have the desired result, as over time many of the female or minority lawyers move on and the status quo remains.
In my opinion a few of the keys to maintaining diversity within a firm are relationship building, and retention strategies. It is all well and good to have a policy in place to promote diversity when hiring individuals, but if they do not stick around and work their way up in the firm these strategies cannot be seen as functional. A major component of keeping people around is in the environment that is created and the relationships that are built after those individuals are hired. If the senior associates and partners of the firm are not open, welcoming, and evenly distributing the quality work amongst a diverse group of articling students and junior associates there will likely be a disconnect between those parties who are not getting equal treatment. The more established lawyers within the firm must also be sure to make a concerted effort to avoid falling back into the traditional cycles and following the biases that have perpetuated the status quo. A firm must be sure to maintain this type of equal-opportunity working environment as much as possible to establish the relationships required to keep this diverse group of young lawyers happy and productive. If people begin to feel like they are not getting equal treatment they will likely begin to feel unappreciated, and begin to look for other opportunities. However, if they are getting the quality work and building strong relationships they will be more likely to stick around and become productive team members.
In conjunction with the building of relationships firms must also have strong retention strategies. Certainly some, if not all, of the items mentioned above will also play a role in such strategies. On top of building relationships and making young lawyers feel like valued members of the team, the firm must also have a plan for keeping those parties around for the long term. A number of things can make up this plan, and again can include much of the items noted previously. For instance with younger employees a retention strategy could involve incorporating some form of flexibility in their future with the firm in the event that they would like to start a family. As most people know having a young family can make it difficult to be in the office full time. Therefore thinking ahead and creating a flexible face-time policy can be effective in retaining those young lawyers as well as building a respectful and open working environment moving forward. A similar policy can also be used as more senior lawyers age, and hope to wind down their practices. It may be that these types of retention strategies can even help junior and senior lawyers build their relationships through a time-sharing type of system that maintains the flexibility that they desire while continuing to be productive. These relationships can also create significant learning opportunities for those young lawyers that choose to share time with senior associates and partners. Overall these types of policies can allow for the flexibility that is required to raise young families or transition towards retirement while still providing a meaningful contribution to the working environment. They can also promote the building of strong relationships and loyalty within the firm.
Although these suggestions are not a complete answer to the diversity and inequality issues that are currently at play in the legal community, they are certainly a step in the right direction. If firms can establish the type of environment that a young and diverse group of lawyers want to be a part of for the long-term they will go a long way to having their hiring strategies create truly diverse firms, as opposed to being merely hiring strategies without achieving true long-run effectiveness.
Nathan – I think this is a great post, and it speaks to a very important issue. You are right when you say “all is well and good if you have these diversity policies” but you make a great point – how is it actually being implemented in the firm, day-to-day, and is it sustainable?
I think that the solution will be more natural with our generation as we become more and more culturally and gender inclusive. Our future firms will start to reflect that. I think that the past couple generations have put these diversity quotas in their policies more because they felt like they had to and it was a newer cutting edge concept – but it might not have been so natural for them to actually embody them. I think that will just resolve itself as our culture becomes more inclusive. The lawyers themselves and their inner values make the firm. I have great hope!
Nathan,
One other thing that many people over look is the value added proposition of diversity. People can feel naturally resentful if they feel disadvantaged by forced diversity policies; but if these policies help to attract the best possible talent and retain it then they are ultimately beneficial for the firm.
I think selling diversity orientated policies as a method through which to improve the firm overall is something worth considering. I have met many amazing lawyers of both genders, but there is no denying that over a five year period more women leave the profession than men. Every time a highly qualified female lawyer leaves a firm because of insufficient support (such as lack of a maternity leave policy that does not leave her behind her colleagues when she returns) it ultimately hurts the firm.
If we want to see equality and diversity in the work place, I would add a third pillar to your proposed two – support. Programs which recognize the differences between individuals and provide the support needed to help them succeed despite those differences.
Interesting post Nathan. I’m wondering if part of the problem is the diversity policies and retention policies of law firms. Even if they are made with good intentions, I feel like part of the problem that these firms will have is that these policies are made by some of the people that may have caused the problems with a lack of diversity in the first place. There may be implicit biases not realized by firms when they are making their retention policies, especially if they have been having retention issues in the past. This isn’t in anyway meant to disparage the attempts to create such policies, as they are necessary and should be a part of any modern law firm, but it is possible that firms which have had problems with retaining diverse firm members should consider fresh voices and ideas in making their policies. Even the idea of talking to members of the firm that stayed to ask why they stayed, or talking to those individuals that left for honest answers as to why they left might create a clearer picture. Of course there is no perfect solution, or all law firms would be doing it, but just like L21C makes us look question the way law firms have traditionally been set up, law firms might be served by looking at finding ideas outside their normal box of thinking to find solutions to retaining a diverse work environment.