Law firms pay lip service to diversity, must take 'concrete steps to change,' former judge says
Former U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin/Stroock
Judges, clients and law firms can help boost the percentage of cases in which female lawyers have lead counsel roles, according to a former federal judge who worked on a report chronicling women’s underrepresentation.
Former U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, a mediator and arbitrator who is now of counsel at the Stroock law firm, says she often encountered the issue when she presided in cases. She would ask a senior partner—usually a man—a tough question, and he would confer with the younger lawyer—usually a woman—before answering.
“I would ask myself why she wasn’t doing the arguing, since she knew the case cold,” Scheindlin wrote in a New York Times op-ed.
The new report by the New York State Bar Association indicates that situation may not be unusual. It found that women are lead counsel in only 25 percent of cases in federal and state courtrooms across the New York state. In private sector cases, where the client picks the lawyer, women were lead counsel in only 19.4 percent of the cases.
Judges can make a difference, Scheindlin says, by suggesting that the lawyer arguing a case be the person who wrote the brief or prepared the witness. Clients can do their part by demanding diversity on their legal teams.
Law firms can also act. They “must stop paying lip service to diversity and take concrete steps to change,” Scheindlin says.
“Firms can commit to guaranteeing that junior female lawyers participate in the same number of depositions as their male counterparts,” she writes. “They can ensure that every trial team has at least one woman; that women are meeting clients at the same rate as men; and that bright, aggressive women are given leadership positions in the firm as department heads and managing partners.”
