Fragomen has been recognized again for promoting a racially and ethnically diverse attorney workforce in Law360’s 2018 Diversity Snapshot. The firm was ranked #1 on this year’s list of best law firms (with 300-599 attorneys) for minority attorneys and minority equity partners.
The average percentage of minority equity partners for firms in our size category was 7.1 percent overall, while Fragomen’s percentage was three times the average, at 22.2 percent. Thirty percent of Fragomen’s overall U.S. attorney population self-identifies as ethnic minorities, which is more than twice the average percentage for firms in our size category.
The article also discusses Fragomen’s firm-wide training to make sure lawyers are supportive of and responsive to clients’ cultural differences. Fragomen Partner Gwendolyn Robosson told Law360: “On a day-to-day basis, our lawyers might speak with someone who was born in China, and the next hour, someone born in Brazil, and the following hour, someone born in India. Clients want to know that the firms they are working with value diversity because diversity — at least in my experience — represents knowledge and the ability to be the best.”
To develop the rankings, Law360 surveyed more than 300 U.S. firms, or vereins with a U.S. component, about their overall and minority headcount numbers as of Dec. 31, 2017. Law360 grouped firms based on U.S. attorney headcount to evaluate them alongside similarly-sized peers. They excluded any firm that had below-average minority representation at any level of the firm, and then ranked the remaining firms based on their percentage of minority attorneys, both at the nonpartner and partner level.