When Blacks Become Lawyers, Does Discrimination Finally Stop?

To paraphrase an old saying: “Despair is seeing your lawyer being discriminated against.”

Seriously, in a society wherein we've been taught to rely on advice from our attorneys when we've encountered discrimination, it's very disconcerting to realize that they, themselves, aren't being treated fairly.

Race-based economic, housing, professional and educational disparities are wide and growing wider. We're finding, now, that not even highly educated, well-trained lawyers have been spared.

Up to now, we’ve been programmed to believe that blacks who are having the most difficult time being fairly included in this economy are those who are less educated, those who “haven’t applied themselves” or those who may have fallen into conflict with the criminal justice system.

That’s what they tell us.

The fact is, however, that some of the very best and brightest, most well-educated, most law-abiding and career-focused black people in this country are still “catching a bad break" – right now – simply because of their race.

The most glaring and surprising example of that phenomenon, I guess, is how African Americans are being treated in the legal profession – not the defendants, but the black lawyers, themselves.

It almost makes you want to take up a collection for all of the well-dressed lawyers in town...almost.

To get a handle on all of this, let’s start with a story you may have seen in last week’s New York Times, the one that pointed out that, over a 15- year period ending in 2008, the percentage of black law students has declined from 7.9 percent to 7.3 percent of all law school students. This happened, said the Times, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had ruled in 2003 (Grutter v. Bollinger) that race absolutely can be taken into account in law school admissions because there is a compelling state interest in having diverse student bodies in law schools.

Despite the fact that black law school applicants have actually improved their scores on law school admissions tests, and their grade point averages, over the period, fewer are being admitted and a smaller percentage is currently enrolled than were attending law school in 1993.

If that looks to you as if the so-called "best and brightest” black students are actually moving backwards rather than forward in their career pursuits, regardless of hard work, clean records and higher test scores, then you, my friend, are very, very observant.

In fact, the Times also pointed out, data captured in a study by a Columbia University professor named Conrad Johnson disclosed that, from 2003 to 2008, 61 percent of black applicants were denied acceptance at law schools to which they applied. By comparison only 34 percent of white applicants' applications were rejected.

As bad as this all seems to be for black law students, it may be even even worse for you, if you believe legally trained blacks will bring greater levels of awareness and sensitivity to a justice system that sorely needs it.

For example, another report last week revealed that although whites in New York City, as a group, are the heaviest users of marijuana, they are least likely to be incarcerated for it. The same report indicated that blacks in New York are seven times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. In fact, during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first eight years in office, marijuana arrests increased by 50 percent, as compared to the experience during Rudolph Guiliani’s term as mayor, and 87 percent of those arrested for those crimes were black or Latino.

Interviewed by a Times reporter, John Nussbaumer, from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills, Michigan, couldn’t have said it better: “…as the American population becomes more diverse … the lawyer corps and judges are remaining predominantly white.”

Now, if we had evidence that racial bias is no longer factored into critical everyday decisions, such as black admittance to law schools, then the race of our lawyers and judges wouldn’t matter. But, clearly, it still does.

For Philadelphia, the nationwide reduction in black law school admissions simply projects that an already shameful record of black inclusion at major law firms will probably get worse.

It appears that most black law school grads have just a slim prospect of landing a job at a credible local law firm or an opportunity to be invited to serve as a partner or shareholder. According to the Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP), Philadelphia law firms have done an unquestionably sub-standard job of attracting talented black attorneys and moving them up to partner/shareholder level.

In fact, according to NALP’s 2008 survey of law firms in 46 cities, there were 61,572 total partners practicing law in those places, of which 5.92 percent were “minority” and just 1.68 percent were black.

Because Philadelphia is one of the five largest cities in the U.S., because it's home to some of the country’s most prestigious law schools and because the city’s population is about 45 percent black, you’d expect the number and percentage of black partners, here, to be substantially greater than the national average and greater than that in most cities.

If you expected that, you’d be wrong.

The percentage of black partners at Philadelphia mainstream law firms, according to NALP stands at 1.75 percent, which translates to about 22 persons.

Let's think this through: We’ve got about 626,000 black people in Philadelphia and just 22 of them are partners in mainstream law firms, making them members of one of the most exclusive "clubs" in America. That's embarrassing.

As bad as that sounds, you don’t actually begin to realize how much work needs to be done to correct the problem, here, until you understand that Philadelphia’s percentage of black partners ranks behind 19 other cities in this category. Philadelphia has a lower percentage of black law partners than Atlanta (4.1 %), Baltimore (3.18 %), New Orleans (3.16%), Washington D.C. (2.92%) and the Detroit area (2.87%). Even worse, law firms in cities and towns such as Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte, N.C.; Miami; Columbus, Ohio; Cleveland; Richmond, V.A. (the former seat of the Confederacy), and even Wilmington, Delaware, have a higher percentage of black partners.

In a recent conversation with one of the city's black law firm partners, I learned that, in 1976, there were actually 26 black partners in major Philadelphia law firms, as compared to the 22 who hold those positions today, 34 years later. In addition, according to the same partner, there is a direct correlation between Philadelphia's relatively small African-American business community and the lower propensity of large law firms to create black partners. The belief is that if the firms were seriously interested in attracting the business of substantial black-owned companies, they would feel compelled to create more black partners to lead those efforts.

Sounds like one more good, synergistic, reason to nurture black entrepreneurship and business growth in our City.

Black partners also firmly believe that the City government, itself, could play a much more impactful role in encouraging the creation of additional black partners. It appears that the City has in recent years made significant outside legal expenditures, without communicating any desire that qualified firms that do work for Philadelphia should also employ black and minority associates and partners.

Apparently, a business practice modification as simple as that would incentivize black-, Hispanic- and Asian-focused recruiting practices at the large firms.

O.K., here’s the question: "Now that we all have a better understanding of the problem, what are we going to do about it?"

Or, don't we really care?


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