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The coming years expect an increase in diverse early-career attorneys in law firms. Proactive mentorship can help retain them into partnership ranks but will require both the firms and the early-career attorneys to be open-minded in the mentoring relationships.
As a legal profession, our collective efforts in increasing diversity at law firms have begun to see deliberate progress at the initial hiring stage, signaling increased diversity among early-career attorneys in coming years. According to the 2022 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms by the National Association for Law Placement, the legal profession continues to make measurable gains in the representation of women, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals at the summer associate and associate levels. The Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s 2022 U.S. Law Firm Diversity Survey Report shares that assessment as well, finding, for instance, that the demographics of 2L summer associates mirror that of the United States population.
These findings are encouraging, but maintaining this progress will remain a challenge against the implications and effects of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Indeed, major news outlets have reported the legal challenges to diversity fellowship programs at two international law firms, leading many firms to reconsider or restructure diversity hiring programs and practices.
Apart from those external pressures, both the NALP and MCCA reports identify a compelling concern contrasting the increases in early-career attorney diversity: these increases are not sustaining into partnership and law firm leadership ranks. For example, both the NALP and MCCA reports found that just over 4% of all partners were women of color. While a significant underrepresentation against the United States population (e.g., Black women alone comprise about 7% of America), this is also a remarkably low figure compared to their earlier-career counterparts; about 26% of summer associates and 16% of associates were women of color in each report. Although promising that as a profession we have demonstrated successful efforts in recruiting diverse talent, the reports’ findings illuminate perhaps the more critical challenge: Can we now develop and retain diverse early-career attorneys?
Given the evident dearth of diversity among firm partnership and leadership, this greater challenge can be a self-perpetuating issue. On one end, an early-career attorney may perceive that absent any trailblazers in the partnership ranks, no such trail exists, in turn intensifying the typical psychosocial sentiments of imposter syndrome or otherwise being on the periphery. And on the other end, firm leadership potentially lacks the benefit of the insightful perspectives and innovative voices that a diverse team would bring to more effective staffing and promotion decisions that could improve attorney retention. Both ends contribute to early-career attorney attrition in what presents as a seemingly vicious cycle.
One way to meaningfully address the retention issue is through proactive mentoring efforts: setting up established attorneys with the early-career attorneys. But this isn’t a straightforward solution.
On one hand, would-be mentees prefer mentors with shared demographics, identities and affinities. And naturally so; a mentor with matching demographics is more readily relatable, generally leading to more candid conversations in the relationship and stronger psychosocial support. Likewise, the relatability runs a two-way street in the relationship. In turn, would-be mentors tend to tutor those with shared characteristics. For instance, a 2019 study of over 3,000 U.S. professionals by Coqual (formerly the Center for Talent Innovation) described a “mini-me syndrome” phenomenon in which 71% of the self-identified “sponsors” reported their protégé shared the same gender or race. Inclined to envision a version of themselves in a mentee, it is naturally easier for mentors to discover, recognize and foster a mentee’s potential and ability.
With this natural gravitation in the mentor-mentee relationship arises a supply and demand issue. Especially within a firm’s own walls, diverse early-career attorneys simply may not be able to access an established attorney with shared demographics. To the extent a demographically matched mentorship is the goal, particularly desirable as a source of vital psychosocial support, firms would be wise to be well-connected in the local legal community. Do not overlook connections at state and local bar associations, in-house counsel at client entities or even established attorneys at other firms for those who may be willing to serve as those mentors. This may seem counterintuitive — why direct newly acquired (and perhaps high investment) talent to potential future employers? Such hesitancy or reluctance in creating those circumstances is understandable, but the calculus may result the same: Without identifying someone who can provide the desired guidance and psychosocial support, the risk of departure or attrition remains.
The alternative, of course, is a more cross-matched or mixed mentoring relationship. Although against their inclination, diverse early-career attorneys should be receptive to these relationships. Related research reveals value exists in mixed mentoring relationships. For example, a 2010 issue paper from the Department of Defense’s Military Leadership Diversity Commission summarized available research on the issue, which indicated that “mixed mentoring relationships are more likely to provide career benefits, whereas mentoring relationships based on demographic similarity are more likely to provide psychosocial benefits.” Similarly, a 2011 study on about 1,000 STEM students in higher education showed that “[s]tudents who had a mentor of their own gender or race reported receiving more help, but matching by race or gender did not affect academic outcomes.”
To that end, diverse early-career attorneys should be encouraged to seek mentors outside of their most narrow affinities and identities. In addition to being an avenue to combat the statistical realities and roadblocks to the retention issue, mixed mentoring relationships can still serve to provide insight and career development advice. Moreover, these relationships illustrate the value of diversity on a micro level, creating avenues for varying perspectives and broader viewpoints that may foster growth in both the mentor and the mentee, especially in terms of empathy and cultural competence.
Overall, the influx of diverse early-career attorneys in law firm settings is a welcome boon to the legal profession. To keep the influx sustaining into the partnership ranks, proactive mentorship and support will need to extend beyond the firm itself and will require an openness to the benefits of mixed mentoring relationships.•
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Chad Walker is a partner and Dakota Slaughter is an associate at Bose McKinney & Evans LLP. Opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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