Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
In my experience, that's not true. I have no doubt that it's true at some or many firms, but it's just too easy and cynical to say it's true across the board.
What do you think the percentage of black attorneys in SV is?
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Tyrone, I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers and your firm may be the exception but from my experience in the Valley, most firms will have a handful of those who regularly do probono (several hours a month), a couple who will throw a free bone when work is slow and the rest wouldn't have the slightest idea where to find the nearest law clinic. Though not enough credit is given to those hard working souls who have chosen to balance their professional careers with community involvement (except when its time to claim firmwide support for probono causes in the most recent newsletter). Give me a break!
As far as the percentage of black attorneys in SV, I'm not sure whether you mean employed, unemployed or both. Also, this may lead to a chicken or egg problem. Is the number in Valley low because they don't have jobs in firms or are firm numbers low because there are no black attorneys in the Valley?
My personal feeling, as you may have guessed, is the former. I say this because there are several small and midsized civil firms in San Fracisco and the East Bay with considerable A-A presence. It's hard for me to believe that they all are staying in the East Bay to avoid the tolls and/or almost double salary that would result from commuting to the Valley.
Finally, I agree with everything AngryMulletMan has just said with the exception that I believe firm management (e.g. hiring partners, managing partners, exec. committees) deserve the blame by the fact that they should be aware that these biases exist within interviewers and they still refuse to implement checks to increase the integrity of the system (see suggestions for change by Klaatu and myself in earlier postings). If these firms can coordinate several ongoing multi-million dollar class action lawsuits or close multi-billion dollar tech deals, they are grown-up enough to look at the NALP numbers and say "hey our program may not be working, lets put some of our $500/hour minds together to solve this problem." That is if they cared in the first place. Just a thought.
