Allyship Through the Lens of a Headhunter and Ex-Employment Attorney

A little over a month ago, I happened upon a national town hall series on Black Lawyers in America. I watched session 3 — on the future — featuring Tiffany Harper, Brandon Harrell and Karl Riley. The speakers were outstanding, and some of the facts they shared were eye-opening. They didn’t disabuse me of the (fantastical) notion that the legal industry offered a level playing field; I was under no such illusion at the outset. Rather, the information they shared, including hard numbers and percentages, made clear that the gap that remains to be bridged is wider than I’d imagined. In particular, Tiffany noted that while the number of Black lawyers in BigLaw has increased since 2015, it still wasn’t back to pre-recession (2006) levels — and the numbers then weren’t great. And later Karl talked about the Nextion memo. (For those who aren’t aware of how implicit bias impacts advancement opportunity in the workplace to this day, read about the memo — and watch Karl’s discussion of it, as he rightly observes that its lessons can be broadened to apply to all minorities and women.)

That was on a Monday. That Friday, I spoke with two clients in media/tech. One noted that everyone in her group belonged to the same demographic, which was NOT okay; clearly, some hiring practices (in particular, relying on referrals only) needed to change. The other client, a diverse woman, noted that she was part of her company’s DEI initiative. Initially, I assumed I’d misheard her — what was the ‘E’ for? When she told me…