I normally throw away the California Bar Journal when it arrives monthly in the mail.  Who can stand the self-congratulatory articles and endless call to pro-bono work?  But after my last job interview, I went back and reread the paper on-line.  My interviewer had been intrigued by the article about minorities and how they have ‘miles to go’ in the profession.

Not one to remain quiet in the face of an incomplete story, I drafted the following letter to the editor:

Editor, California Bar Journal
180 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94105-1639

            Re:       ABA study finds minority lawyers have ‘miles to go’ in the profession

Dear Editor:

            It was with interest that I read the March article about the low numbers of minorities who are recruited at and stay at large law firms.  I beg to differ with some of the study’s findings, however.

            It has been my personal observation, especially during the time I have lived in Los Angeles, that the top tier law firms have a large pool of white women and minority attorneys working within their offices.  Every day, these attorneys, often with years of experience under their belts, ascend the corporate elevators which nearly silently whoosh them to these white shoe domains.  They are not reflected in NALP or other statistics, and they are virtually invisible to the majority white and male attorneys who pad the floors because they are shuttled off to administrative floors or enclosed in interior conference rooms.  These lawyers are very loyal to the firms where they work – toiling away countless hours on large-scale projects for many months, and sometimes years.

            These attorneys are among a legion of temporary workers now dominating the general marketplace.  For twenty-five to thirty dollars per hour (most without benefits), – a mere fraction of what their ‘associate’ counterparts earn, they work in quiet isolation – often doing the ‘heavy lifting’ that the ‘elite’ associate recruits don’t do themselves.

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