Law Firms
Firms hire fewer Black law interns because of conservative pressure
Law firms are hiring fewer Black summer associates because of a conservative push to end race- and gender-based preferences in school admissions and hiring. (Image from Shutterstock)
The number of Black summer associates at U.S. law firms has decreased to its lowest level in more than a decade amid a conservative push to end race- and gender-based preferences in school admissions and hiring, including a specific effort against legal internships, according to a story by Bloomberg Law.
Last summer was the third straight year in which the proportion of Black summer associates declined, marking a 3.5 percentage point decrease since a peak of about 12% in 2022, according to an annual study released Tuesday by the National Association for Law Placement. The proportion of summer associates of color overall declined by 5.5 percentage points, to about 38%, the lowest since 2020, according to the Bloomberg Law story.
“People are overly cautious, and it’s causing them to over correct,” Nikia Gray, the executive director of the NALP, an industry association focused on supporting legal careers, told Bloomberg Law. “It’s the summer associate pool that tells you what’s to come and predicts what’s going to happen.”
The American Alliance for Equal Rights, a conservative nonprofit organization, sued a pair of firms in 2023 alleging that scholarships and programs that they offered based on the applicants’ race were discriminatory. The firms, as well as several others, later agreed to open up programs to all applicants.
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