One hurdle at a time
Women lawyers of color need to be heard
By Darhiana Mateo
Hey don't fit the mold.
But in a field dominated by white males, the presence of women lawyers of
color is posing a bold challenge to traditional ways of thinking as these
women demand that this time around, the mold be made to fit
them.
Francelyn Perez, an associate with Tristan Ports LLC in Chicago, knows what
it's like to come face to face with obstacles — and come out on
top.
Perez's father brought his young family, comprised of his wife and three
daughters, to America after the chemical plant he worked for in the small
rural town of Yauco, Puerto Rico, was shut down.
In the blink of an eye, 8-year-old Perez, the middle child, found herself
in an unfamiliar place struggling to learn a strange new language and adapt
to a different culture.
She not only became the first, and as of yet the only, member of her family
to graduate from college, but she went on to attend Chicago-Kent College of
Law. Perez now pays tribute to her roots by concentrating her practice on
family and employment-based immigration law.
But even armed with her talent and law degree, dressed in a power suit and
a string of pearls, Perez knows she's not exactly what her clients expect
to see when they walk through her office door.
"They think: She's young, female, Puerto Rican," she said.
"I think I'm definitely challenging a lot of notions about what a
lawyer is — who they should be — and what they can
do."
Unfortunately, in today's society, women lawyers of color such as Perez
still have a long and arduous fight ahead of them as they attempt to
negotiate a place for themselves in a field that continues to question and
underestimate their abilities because of their gender and race.
"There have been some improvements, but they're happening at a glacial
pace," said Diane Yu, chair of the ABA's Commission on Women in the
Profession. "Women of color have to grapple with both sexism and
racism, stereotypes that have impeded women of color from reaching
success."
In 2003, the commission embarked on a research initiative to fully examine
the realities, experiences and perspectives of women of color in the legal
field — a project that stands poised to make history as the first of
its kind.
"Our mission is to provide the most up to date, detailed and
comprehensive information about women of color in the legal field. We hope
that this will inform policy and efforts to ensure that women of color have
equal opportunity to both get into, and advance, in the profession,"
Yu said. "We wanted to get at the reasons and perhaps be in a position
to recommend changes that could help remove some of the
barriers."
The research initiative will include quantitative and qualitative data
collection, ranging from surveying women lawyers of color, interviews with
hiring professionals from law firms, corporations, governmental entities,
nonprofit organizations and law schools, and a series of focus groups and
individual interviews targeting women lawyers of color.
The statistics focusing exclusively on women of color in the legal field
are few and far in between. But those that do exist warn that a serious
issue is at hand.
According to Miles to Go: The Progress of Minorities in the
Profession report published in 2000 by the ABA's Commission on Racial
and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, while progress has been slow for
all minorities in the legal field, it has been especially challenging for
minority women. This updated report is the only comprehensive collection of
facts, figures and statistics on the status of minority lawyers in the
legal profession.
Law firm attrition rates for minority women are higher than for any other
group. Around 12.1 percent of minority women leave their firms within the
first year of practice and more than 85 percent leave by the seventh year,
before being considered for partnership or just at the time when such
decisions are made. Minority women make up less than 1 percent of capital
partners in Chicago and 1.2 percent of income partners. There is only one
minority female general counsel in the Fortune 500, only six minority
female federal appellate judges, and only two female law school deans,
according to the report.
Minority women are more likely than whites or male minorities to take
government or public-interest jobs. In 1998, 23.6 percent of minority
female graduates entered government or public interest practices, compared
to 18.9 percent of minority men and 15.2 percent of whites.
According to a 2001 study, Women in Law, Making the Case, published
by Catalyst, a leading research and advisory organization that works with
businesses and the legal field to expand opportunities for women, the
following numbers are a vivid indicator that something is wrong:
Job advancement: 30 percent of women lawyers of color are
satisfied (compared to 41 percent of white women). Clients prefer to work with white lawyers: 46 percent of women
lawyers of color agree (compared to 26 percent of white women and 13
percent of white men). More attention needs to be placed on race/ethnic issues: 44
percent of women lawyers of color agree (compared to 35 percent of white
women/ 26 percent of white men).
Virtually no other statistics exist focusing specifically on women of color
in the legal field, a sharp reminder of the pressing need for more
awareness of these women's experiences and realities.
As a young girl, Francelyn Perez grew up admiring civil and human rights
champions such as the legendary Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi and Mother
Theresa. Her most influential hero, however, was also the man she called
"Papi" (father).
Her father came to America without a college degree and without speaking a
word of English, and ended up becoming a senior mechanical engineer —
toward the end of his career designing machines that saved his company
millions of dollars.
"To me it's just amazing that a humble man from a small town in Puerto
Rico could achieve so much," Perez said. "I learned a lot from
him, the value of hard work and perseverance."
It wasn't until her senior year in college that her mother planted the seed
in her head to consider a career in law. "I started thinking about it
... and something just clicked," Perez said.
Years later, Perez is now one of the few Latina lawyers in the country
— but in spite of the discrimination and bias that she sometimes
encounters, she considers her ethnicity to be an asset in today's global
world.
"There's a huge population out there of Spanish-speaking people who
need someone who can speak their language and relate to them on a cultural
level," she said. "Being bicultural and bilingual, I can serve
the needs of the average American citizen and I can help marginalized
groups of people. I don't see any real limit regarding what I can do or who
I can serve."
Perez recognized the advantages of being bicultural early on in her legal
career. The summer following her first year of law school, she got a
fellowship with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, working with
the Legal Services Center for Immigrants.
"I was one of the very, very, very few Latinas. A lot of people who
were doing the work didn't share similar experiences. I felt I could really
relate to my clients. I know what it's like to come from a different
country and have to adapt," Perez said. "They trusted
me."
Alpha Brady, director of the Division for Policy Administration at the ABA,
remembers being told by her prelaw adviser not to set her sights too high
and apply to schools within her reach. She thanked him for his advice and
instead decided to go ahead and apply to Northwestern University School of
Law. She got in.
"We cannot assume that because of the year we're in that we're
enlightened — that there's no racism or sexism. It exists. The
question is how you address it," Brady said. "I didn't let that
stop me." Brady was a prosecutor for the state before deciding to
pursue an alternative career with the American Bar Association.
According to Brady, the gender and racial discrimination that women of
color face in the legal profession is simply reflective of a greater social
problem: "The legal profession is no different from society. As long
as society has a problem with gender and race, this profession will as
well," she said.
The class before and after Brady's class had about six black students.
Brady's year was unusual in that there were 20 black students
enrolled.
"We called it the "Blip Year," she said with an easy laugh,
gold bracelets generating a soft jingle as she lifted a hand to brush back
a strand of brown hair. "You at least felt that you weren't there by
yourself."
However, she describes the law school atmosphere as very competitive.
"I remember getting asked a question and answering half intelligently
— and people were shocked. 'Like, she has a brain,' " she
said.
As Brady leans back in her chair, she exudes a quiet strength and an
unapologetic confidence in herself. Her next words reaffirm this
impression:
"I never forget where I come from. I don't wear a badge on my shoulder
but at the same time, I don't forget that I'm a black woman," Brady
said. "There's always going to be someone out there who doubts you
because you're a woman, or black, or Hispanic. It's a slippery slope once
you let other people define you."
Elizabeth A. Moreno, of the Law Offices of Elizabeth A. Moreno in Los
Angeles, recalls a time when she left a firm because she did not feel
valued — and ended up taking a major client with her.
"In regard to Hispanics in this field, there were none. You just kind
of bit the bullet and tried your best to make it on your own," Moreno
said.
Moreno, whose ancestors came from Spain but stopped along the way in
Argentina and Hawaii, feels that because of her light skin, an inheritance
from her Caucasian mother, her ethnicity took a back seat to her
gender.
"Being female was the major problem. There are these stereotypes that
women didn't handle things aggressively enough, weren't good enough,"
Moreno said. "It was very sad. I basically had to work twice as hard
and prove myself more than a comparable male attorney. And even when I did
that, I was still not rewarded the same as those comparable male attorneys
who did not do as much."
According to a 2003 report, A Current Glance of Women in the Law,
published by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession,
women comprise 29.1 percent of all lawyers. In addition, women lawyers
continue to earn less money then their male counterparts, a woman lawyer's
median salary being 76 percent of men's. By the year 2010, women will
constitute nearly 40 percent of the legal profession, said Yu, chair of the
commission. "I certainly hope that we make more progress by that time
than we have today."
Moreno left behind a shining career as a trial lawyer to embrace a new
challenge — the up and coming field of dispute resolution. She is
currently actively involved in the Diversity Committee of the Dispute
Resolution Section at the ABA.
Moreno added that there is a strong need for ethnic groups to have
representatives in the judiciary and in the legal field that they can
connect with. She said that it was disturbing that even at a time when the
Latino population has become the largest and fastest growing minority group
in the United States, the majority of the judiciary continues to be
dominated by Caucasian males.
"Something's wrong here," Moreno said.
In addition to the sexism and racism that women of color face in the legal
field, especially in the area of corporate law, women of color voiced a
need to see other women like themselves in positions of authority who could
serve as mentors and role models.
Karen Clanton, former chair for the ABA's Multicultural Women Attorneys
Network (MWAN) and editor of the groundbreaking ABA book, Dear Sisters,
Dear Daughters: Words of Wisdom from Multicultural Women Attorneys Who've
Been There and Done That, said that society has to keep in mind the
unique nuances and complexities that characterize the experiences of women
of color.
"Women of color are in a particularly unique position because their
gender is racialized, and at the same time, the racial stereotypes about
them have gendered undertones," Clanton explained.
According to Clanton, the lack of mentors is one of the key reasons behind
the high attrition rate of women lawyers of color. "A lot of women of
color don't have the kind of support they need to survive in this
profession," Clanton said.
But Clanton did not let that stop her: "I felt that I had to work
harder, strategize faster, to get the same opportunities as others,"
she said. "There were definitely barriers there. The issue is how to
get around them."
Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz PC, in Birmingham, Ala.,
ranked in 2004 as one of the 10 fastest growing law firms in the United
States by the National Law Journal, and one of the 100 largest law
firms in the country, is just one of a growing number of firms that have
recently decided to bank on diversity.
For their recruiting director, Sue Porter, it's simply the right thing to
do. "We have a strong commitment to diversity and have implemented
some rather innovative practices that we're satisfied most firms aren't
doing," she said.
Instead of just recruiting the brightest minorities from college campuses
and offering them summer associate positions — the typical approach
that most law firms take when it comes to recruiting minority associates
— Baker Donelson has experienced incredible success by bringing in
qualified minorities as shareholders.
"These minority shareholders serve as mentors for minority students
when we go recruiting," Porter said. "It's very powerful to have
these minority shareholders look them in the eye and say we're going to
help you. You will get the kind of assignments you want; you won't just be
a token minority."
This innovative approach is quickly differentiating Baker Donelson from
many other law firms who claim to have a commitment toward diversity but
continue to see high attrition rates among their minority
associates.
The firm currently employs 29 minorities, seven of which are shareholders,
and three of which are outside counsels.
"If you don't have minority leaders, when these minority associates
face challenges unique to them, they don't have anyone to turn to for
help," she said. "I think that's why most firms fail (when it
comes to retention of minority associates). Although they hire them —
they don't seem to be able to hold on to them."
According to Clanton, diversity just makes sense financially.
"I believe in diversity of perspectives (not just race, gender, age).
This adds more to addressing legal problems creatively and
effectively," Clanton said. "Diversity brings value to the bottom
line."
Not to mention flavor.
"Women bring a different kind of style and energy to profession. Keep
it vital and keep it vibrant," Yu said.
Renuka Vishnubhakta, associate director of the National Association of
Minority and Woman Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF), agreed that diversity is fast
becoming a hot commodity in the legal field: "Diversity in the
customer/client base demands that companies respect the needs of a diverse
client base," she said.
The mission of NAMWOLF is to advocate for minority-owned and women-owned
law firms whose practices focus significantly on corporate law.
"Historically, corporate America has been using majority-owned firms.
We need to make corporate America aware that these other firms, just as
qualified, do exist. We're asking companies to be more inclusive —
not asking them to settle for less quality," she said.
However, she admits that old habits die hard.
"Some of these corporations have long-standing relationships with
majority-owned firms — they don't want to change," Vishnubhakta
said. "How can smaller, minority-owned firms get their foot in the
door?"
Perez recalls that when she first entered the legal work force, a big
corporate law firm job wasn't even on her radar.
"The corporate thing just wasn't for me. Maybe they could do a better
job reaching out to women and minorities to make it more attractive,"
Perez said. "People need to see that they're valued, that their skills
and abilities are respected and needed."
But for Perez and many other women lawyers of color, it's hard to resist
being disillusioned when things seem to be happening at a painfully slow
pace.
"Traditional structures aren't really working — they're not
acceptable for women of color, women in general, and other minorities. Law
firms are going to have to wake up and realize that all this talent is
leaving," she said. "I think it's smart business to rethink all
these old structures."
According to the ABA's Yu, there's a time for words — and a time to
stop talking and take action.
"There needs to be a change in culture within the legal profession
that truly acknowledges, recognizes and values diversity within our
ranks," Yu said. "Many people have spoken passionately,
persuasively, about the need for diversity, but actions haven't backed up
the words."
But even though the quest for a true sense of equality has proven to be
more elusive then previously imagined, that doesn't mean it's beyond
reach.
"Instead of throwing up their hands, lawyers can be brilliant —
we make our living coming up with great strategies. We can tackle this
too," Clanton said.
The first step is acknowledging the problem, making a commitment to doing
something about it, and then moving on to designing and implementing
strategies. It will require efforts on multiple fronts; including areas of
retention, mentoring, and networking, Yu said.
"We really need to cement our commitment to diversity — making
it real instead of just desired," she said. "It's a marathon, not
a sprint. It's going to take vigilance."
Mateo is a freelance writer in Champaign, Ill.
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