Quote:
Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
Dude, that was 40 years ago! Black partners are at 1% today. The progress you're pointing to is the absolute minimum.
TM
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True enough, as for blacks. And I don't see an answer. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
As for women, however, progress has been dramatic in those four (plus) decades. In my first year class there were about 5 women who graduated with that class. After my two year hiatus to the military, when I returned there were about a dozen women in what was then my second year class. At present women are in a majority at the school.
I had a fellowship in my first year of school. It was named after the founder of an ultra white shoe Wall Street law firm. Today the managing partner of that firm is a woman. And while women in practice don't appear to have hit the 50% mark, two of the practice group leaders I deal with in nationwide law firms are women. On the four mega-cases I have had in the last decade, women outside counsel are involved at all levels.
When I was GC of this shop, at one point the legal department had a majority of women. Ironically, that is no longer the case; although it is a woman GC who replaced me.
So all in all, I see genuine, everyday progress for women in the practice of law.