Bre’Anna Metts-Nixon, president of the Black Law Students Association at Roger Williams University School of Law, will graduate this year. She wants to practice entertainment and intellectual-property law, a career that will likely take her beyond Providence to New York or another major city in search of work.
She knows what it’s like to be the only black woman in a room in a professional setting. And if she can avoid it, she wants her first job as an attorney to be at a firm where she isn’t alone.
“Would I like to be at a firm where I’m not the only [black woman]? Absolutely,” she said. “That would be ideal.”
For Rhode Island law firms trying to increase their racial and ethnic diversity, the future plans of students such as Metts-Nixon represent a challenge in recruitment. Local firms compete with much larger cities for new graduates. These cities can offer larger salaries and a more diverse setting, one where a new associate steps into a setting where they can feel at home.
Trying to replicate that experience within local firms has been a focus for several law practices that are trying to diversify their ranks.
Although diversity statistics for Rhode Island firms were not available – the Rhode Island Bar Association doesn’t track them – attorneys and professionals interviewed recently said the numbers remain disproportionately low, compared with the state’s population.
Diony Garcia, co-founder of the Rhode Island Hispanic Bar Association, estimated the state has fewer than 40 practicing attorneys who identify as Hispanic or Latino.
When Garcia worked for the R.I. Office of the Attorney General as a prosecutor, he said he was the only Latino male attorney. He now works at the law offices of William Conley Jr. in East Providence, specializing in municipal law.
‘It is important that people see that [the legal] profession is open to people from all backgrounds.’
MICHAEL YELNOSKY, Roger Williams University School of Law dean
Law practices or government agencies that say they don’t have ethnic or racial diversity among attorneys because the candidates “aren’t applying” need to rethink that position, Garcia said. “It’s an excuse because they should be recruiting,” he said.
Local firms say they’ve enacted policies and recruitment procedures that are aimed at attracting and retaining attorneys with diverse backgrounds. These include:
n Expanding parental leave and incorporating more flexible work options for associates, which is typically a gender-neutral policy but can make staying in law easier for women who are mothers.
n Creating paid fellowships for minority law students, which can lead to a job upon graduation.
n Maintaining close ties with law schools with diverse enrollments and sponsoring diversity-themed seminars and other events that allow experienced attorneys to establish mentoring relationships with students.
n Expanding recruitment well beyond the nation’s top 20 law schools.
Nixon Peabody LLP, a Boston-based firm with offices in Providence, maintains a close relationship with the Roger Williams law school, which itself has greatly increased its diversity in the past 15 years.
At the law school, 29% of students now identify as a racial or ethnic minority, or LGBTQ+, according to RWU statistics. “In terms of competency to practice law, it’s important for diverse students and majority students to realize and have fluency in working with people cross-culturally, so the client base won’t be as white as the law firm,” said Michael Yelnosky, dean of the RWU law school. “Another important piece for us is that law does have a special place in the American experience. Because so many leaders come from the legal profession, it is important that people see that profession is open to people from all backgrounds.”
Nixon Peabody’s ties with Roger Williams University has allowed the firm to collaborate with a law school that shares its goals, said Andrew Prescott, managing partner for the firm’s Providence office, which has 18 attorneys.
“Our commitment is very much aligned,” he said. The connection with students allows the law firm to connect them with mentors, and to help guide them through the final years of law school and into a career.
“In Rhode Island, we’ve developed a reputation as an excellent place to work for all kinds of people, all kinds of folks, not only in the sense of diversity, but in the sense of people with different career paths and aspirations,” he said.
The firm recently was notified that it is among five law practices in the U.S. that will participate in a collaborative effort to find ways to create a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. Its participation in the Move the Need Fund will allow the firm to try new approaches over the next five years.
While women now graduate from law schools at about the same percentage as men, and make up about half the associates in firms in larger cities, they drop out of law or do not reach equity partnerships in equal numbers.
According to national statistics compiled by Diversity Lab, women made up 21% of the equity partners at the 200 largest law firms. Just 9% of the partners were racial or ethnic minorities, and 2% represented LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
At Nixon Peabody, its goals will be to nearly double its existing percentage of women in equity partner positions, to 30%, to increase its percentage of racially and ethnically diverse partners to 12% and to boost to 6% the partners who identify as LGBTQ+.
Stacie Collier, a labor and employment attorney at Nixon Peabody, and a member of its management committee, remembers when she was trying a case at the courthouse in Providence, and found herself in a room full of men. That was 20 years ago, and much has improved since, she said.
In addition to generous parental-leave policies, the firm allows more flexibility to parents in the six months after they return to work – this means that they get paid at 100% of salary but are expected to only bring in 80% of their previous billable hours. It’s intended to allow new parents to ease back into the pressure of the job.
“For a small office, it’s been a great victory to see the number of women we can attract and retain in Providence,” she said.
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
