Methodology: Diversity, Women's and LGBTQ+ Scorecards

The American Lawyer’s Diversity Scorecard aims to track the efforts of large law firms to increase diversity among their U.S. attorney populations. This annual survey scores more than 200 law firms across a series of metrics, which are then rolled up into an overall diversity score. Not only do we track the static number of racially and ethnically diverse lawyers and partners in law firms, but we now also look at the percentage of minorities in leadership roles, in equity partner positions and among the hires, departures and promotions of partners. Detailed information on firms’ performances can be found on Law.com Compass. All attorney counts are average FTE (full-time-equivalent) for the previous calendar year. The data collected by the law firms is self reported by their attorneys. All data is for U.S. offices only.

Diversity Scorecard

Firms are ranked by Diversity Score, with the lowest being the best. To determine this score, firms are ranked in a series of metrics assessing their percentage of racial and ethnic diversity across lawyer headcount by role; leadership of the executive committee, offices and practice and industry groups; and their hiring, retention and promotion of diverse talent. Each section represents a percentage of the overall diversity score, and the number of applicable criteria in each section determines each criterion’s value. For example, if only two of the three firm leadership criteria are applicable for a firm, the weighting for the remaining two criteria in that section would then increase to equal the section’s total weighting. The overall diversity score is then determined by combining the scores for the leadership, talent management, equity partner, and non-equity partner, associate, and other attorney sections.