Women of Color

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“[T]hey were heavily recruited, but that doesn’t translate into any effort to keep them once they’re hired. That struck me as one of the most disturbing findings from the ABA report.” Carmen M. Ortiz-Babilonia President-Elect, Wisconsin Hispanic Lawyers Association

In 1872, Charlotte Ray became the first female African-American lawyer in the U.S. to be admitted to the bar. Ray eventually had to quit the practice of law because she could not attract sufficient clients to remain in business.

Ray’s demise is recounted in a recent report issued by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession. The report concluded that well over a century later, at least in the large law firm environment, women of color are still having a tough time.

Entitled “Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms,” the report gave myriad dismal statistics with regard to the working conditions and retention rates for female minority lawyers, based upon a nationwide survey it conducted of attorneys in firms of 25 lawyers or more.

Among them: Nearly half of the women of color reported experiencing demeaning comments or harassment, compared to only 3 percent of white men. In addition, with regard to retention, 53 percent of women of color chose to remain at law firms, while 72 percent of white males chose to remain.

Is it Happening in Wisconsin?

The short answer is yes — although probably not to the extreme degree that some women of color reported to the ABA.

Lee R. Jones, of the Law Office of Lee Jones in Brown Deer and the president of the Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers (WAAL), says, “I’m sure you can find things like this going on right now at the downtown Milwaukee firms.”

Jones is relying upon what he has heard from some female WAAL members, as well as what he has observed — he used to work at a large firm. He continues, “The findings are kind of what I expected, unfortunately. There are hardly any African-American partners, men or women, at the large law firms here [in Wisconsin], and most minority associates leave after two or three years. So we still have a long way to go, despite the efforts of some of the big firms, who are trying to make strides and be more diverse.”

Another WAAL member, who asked not to be identified for this article, says that the ABA’s report resonated with her, especially when describing the less overt acts of discrimination or harassment.

“What stood out for me was the [respondees’] description of feeling invisible or being mistaken for clerical staff. That happened to me many, many times, although it didn’t happen very often with colleagues, as it did with opposing counsel,” says this woman of color who spent several years at a big Wisconsin firm before going in-house. “Or sometimes with administrative staff, for example, they’d keep on copying something when I came by needing to use the machine, but when a white male lawyer would come by, they’d stop and step aside.”

Coral D. Pleas, another WAAL member and its immediate past-president, says that in her experience, small and medium-sized firms are rarely better than what she has heard about their large-firm counterparts, when it comes to how the treatment of their diverse attorneys.

Pleas, of Pleas Williams LLC, has worked mostly in smaller firms, and is appreciative of the opportunities and the on-the-job training she received, with regard to how to try cases — something that cannot be taught in law school. Yet she echoes the sentiments of the previous interviewee:

“When I read about other women of color talking about being perceived as incompetent, or being mistaken for staff, I could really relate to those experiences. They’re the kind of obstacles that can really set you back professionally.

“To be honest, it was one of the many reasons that went into my decision to start my own firm. Because I’d talk to other people about it, and they’d tell me, ‘If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.’ Sometimes I still encounter those attitudes, from opposing counsel, for example, but not from my co-workers, and now I choose my own assignments.”

Carmen M. Ortiz-Babilonia, the president-elect of the Wisconsin Hispanic Lawyers Association and an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee Inc., says that, working in legal services, she has not experienced what’s described in the ABA report. But she has a number of law school friends — women of color — who have talked about similar treatment. Those who went straight to the big firms after law school didn’t last there longer than one or two years, she observes. And, another friend, for examp
le, a very accomplished attorney of color, just recently told her about a similarly-situated white male attorney who has made partner and she has not.

“What I’ve heard is, there’s a lot of pressure to get work done, but not a lot of support. That they were heavily recruited, but that doesn’t translate into any effort to keep them once they’re hired. That struck me as one of the most disturbing findings from the ABA report,” says Ortiz-Babilonia.

Cristina D. Hernandez-Malaby is an attorney who has been lucky, she says, in that she has not encountered substandard treatment or outdated attitudes in her 11 years as a lawyer, at Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee for the past five years, and before then, for six years at a large Boston firm where she practiced right out of law school. “But I have no doubt that it has happened to others,” she says.

That, coupled with the fact that, of her Harvard Law School class, she can only think of one other woman of color who is still in the large law firm environment, confirms in her mind that large firms as a whole still need to pursue diversity initiatives, and pursue them aggressively. Hernandez-Malaby is the only female partner of color in her firm’s headquarters in Milwaukee. “It’s a little lonely,” she admits. “I’m a little tired of being unique. We were having the conversation about the need for diversity when I was in law school, and before then when I was an undergraduate in the ’80s. Now it’s 2006, and we’re still having it.”

‘Striving to be my best’

Hernandez-Malaby has put her commitment into action, serving on the firm’s Diversity Committee, which has pushed for the implementation of a number of policies and initiatives in recent years to remedy the situation (See accompanying article). Her firm is one of many.

The critical first step is to introduce the dialogue about diversity and then keep it going, they all agree.

“I’m sure there are people in the majority who still do not really understand that the problem exists — that the ‘Old Boys’ Club’ is still there. But you can’t fix a problem unless you’re aware of it,” says Pleas.

And, a one-day program of diversity training is not enough, adds Ortiz-Babilonia. Firms, of all sizes, need to think creatively about ways to help attorneys who have compelling family or community commitments, as diverse attorneys often do, that will promote their retention. Measures such as on-site day care or job-sharing are just a couple of areas for exploration, she suggests. Also, bar associations can do more to heighten the general awareness of the need for diversity, and to reach out to attorneys of color.

On a final note, the woman who asked not to be identified says that at her former firm, and elsewhere, diversity is getting much greater attention these days. It’s a little disheartening to her that apparently that’s the case primarily because clients are demanding it, and not because members of a profession dedicated to justice should do it because it’s the just thing to do, she said. But, doing it for the financial imperative is better than not doing it at all.

She concludes, “Don’t get me wrong. Overall I had a really good experience at my firm, and I think if I’d stayed, I would’ve made partner. I mainly left because I felt like I was thriving professionally but failing personally. Race and discrimination were not the reason I left; it was a quality-of-life decision.

“So I hope no one reading your article thinks I, or women of color as a whole, want sympathy. It’s just reality, and we have to keep fighting. As a person of color, I’m probably going to have to face these things wherever I go, to some extent, and I’ll choose my battles. But I’d never let anybody beat me down to a place where I’m not striving to be the best I can, professionally.