Ours has made big hiring pushes.

Ours has made big hiring pushes.
by tdiddy07 (2019-10-17 17:20:01)
Edited on 2019-10-17 17:23:56

In reply to: We have a diversity committee. posted by Tex Francisco

So far I'm not convinced it has been a positive development for the firm in stockpiling talent. Summer associates that have come through special minority 1L slots or that came from less-regarded schools in which minority status is more likely to have influenced hiring have either not gotten offers, did not last more than a year, or did not pass the bar and were not retained with surprising frequency. Although sample sizes are small, the frequencyy of this compared to non-minority hires really stands out.

Part of this could simply be failures in hiring irrespective of the advantage given to minority students. But based on the makeup of the hiring committee (and my impressions from a couple candidates that made me skeptical I would've been impressed by them in interviewing), I'm led to believe that minority status would have provided a big bump in hiring. So far we appear to have doubled down on the program to make up for the lack of quality retention issues. Maybe to hit some target numbers, I'm not sure. Hopefully the next wave will actually contribute to the firm. But I do fear there's an outsized influence on the hiring committee that is stunting the quality of hiring. I do not know what the local market pressures are, however, at similarly situated firms.