February 12, 1999
Chicago — Membership in the American Bar Association appears to be approaching a diversity that mirrors the racial composition of the legal profession, according to a report just published by the ABA Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession.
The commission found that 92.67 of all lawyers in the U.S. were Caucasian as of 1990, the most recent year for which U.S. Census Bureau figures are available. A voluntary census of ABA members during the 1997-1998 fiscal year showed that, of those who identified their ethnicity, 91 percent were Caucasian.
Figures are reported in the commission's Goal IX Report for 1998-99, providing a snapshot of ethnicity of ABA membership and recommending steps to improve the association's ability to monitor its minority membership in the future.
The association's ninth goal urges "full and equal participation in the profession by women and minorities," and a proposal is pending before the February 1999 House of Delegates meeting of the ABA to include disabled lawyers within the language of the goal. The ABA Commission Women also is reporting this month on its progress in achieving Goal IX.
"Although minorities have been entering the legal profession at an increasing rate, it is difficult to track their membership in the ABA. Our only vehicle for tracking the ethnicity of members is through the ABA census, which is voluntarily completed by members," said José Gaitán, commission chair.
"The ABA has taken significant steps toward reaching its ninth goal. Minority representation in the ABA mirrors that of the legal profession, and for the first time in its history, the second-highest office in the association is held by a lawyer of color, Robert Grey, an African-American lawyer from Richmond, Va.," said Gaitán. "But the country still has a way to go—the percentage of lawyers who are persons of color should approximate the percentage of persons of color in the community. We are nowhere near the goal."
Gaitán noted the ABA census showed 2.3 percent of members who designated their race are African-American, two percent are Hispanic, 1.8 percent are Asian American, and 0.6 percent are Native American.
Gaitán pointed out that minority representation in association governance is higher than the proportion of members who are lawyers of color. On the Board of Governors, 14 percent, or five of 37 members, are lawyers of color.
In the House of Delegates, the association's policy-making body, nine percent, or 46 out of 532 members at the 1998 Annual Meeting, were lawyers of color. But of the association's 28 sections, divisions and forums, 14 have no minority officers this year. Of the 245 identified officers of sections, divisions and forums, 32, or 13 percent, are minority.
Leaders and members of association committees, commissions and other similar entities are appointed by the association's president. Philip S. Anderson, 1998-99 president, has named minority lawyers to 17 percent of the appointments he filled, equaling the highest percentage by any of his predecessors.
The report urges that each association entity monitor participation in its activities by minority lawyers, aggressively seeking to include minorities as program planners, writers, plenary speakers and workshop speakers; it encourages the entities to maintain accurate statistics on the race of their members, enabling them to report on progress toward satisfying Goal IX; it encourages association entities reporting little or no minority participation to perform a self-assessment; and it urges further steps be taken to advance minority representation in association governance and leadership ranks.
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