THE RECORD - New York City Bar Association

M I N O R I T Y R E P R E S E N T A T I O N A N D R E T E N T I O N
law firms and corporate legal departments is actually achieved.
If Minority lawyers are experiencing lower success rates and higher
attrition rates than their non-Minority colleagues, then the fact that the
Signatories have achieved and even exceeded the 10% Minority hiring
goal adopted in 1991 may suggest that more progress has been made in
achieving the overall objective of the Statement than is in fact the case.
Similarly, it may well be that the statistics with regard to Minority hiring
as a whole are not indicative of the hiring rates for African-Americans
and Hispanic-Americans during the Statement period. Thus, it is unclear
whether smaller increases in employment levels for African-Americans and
Hispanic-Americans are attributable to lower hiring rates or higher attrition
rates, or a combination of the two.
Moreover, in Section IV of the Statement, each of the Signatories
pledged to continue to pursue the goal of increasing retention and promotion
rates for Minority lawyers by taking a number of enumerated
steps to ensure that, among other things, the working environment for
Minorities be as hospitable as the working environment for non-Minorities,
that Minorities have equal opportunities to engage in significant
work assignments for important clients, and receive equal training,
mentoring, guidance and opportunities to grow professionally and to succeed.
In seeking to encourage increased Minority representation and retention
at all levels, each of the Signatories pledged to promote or invite to partnership
or senior corporate counsel Minority lawyers who meet the firm’s
or legal department’s requisite criteria for those positions.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS
1. The Committee recommends initially that the Statement be renewed
for an additional six-year period. Although much has been accomplished
in affording greater opportunities to Minorities in the legal profession,
the Task Force report and the survey data upon which it relied
compel the conclusion that a great deal more remains to be accomplished.
2. The Committee recommends that in addition to renewing the Statement
for an additional period of time, the goals should be restated to
provide additional emphasis on the need to enhance retention programs
in an effort to reduce the higher rates of attrition that appear to have
prevailed with respect to Minority associates in general and African-American
and Hispanic associates in particular. The proposed amended Statement
thus contains a new Section II(c) to the effect that each of the Signatories
will seek to achieve the goal within the 1999-2004 period that Minority
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