Diversity Scorecard through The Years: The Strange Case of Steel Hector and Squire Sanders

This year, the overall average percentage of minority attorneys at reporting firms for the Diversity Scorecard was 11.5%; in 2004 it was 9.2%. This year, the most diverse firm was Paul, Weiss; 25.3% of its U.S. attorneys are minorities. A very close second was Wilson Sonsini, with 25.2% minority attorneys. At the top nine firms, in fact, 20% or more of their attorneys are minorities.

Three years ago, in 2004, Paul, Weiss was #2 on the Diversity Scorecard chart, but had a smaller percentage of minority lawyers – 21.6%-- and again Wilson, Sonsini was close behind, with 21.5%. But the most diverse firm that year, as it had been for many years, was Florida-based Steel Hector & Davis, with an impressive 29.2% minority attorneys.

So, what happened to Steel Hector?

Before there was a Minority Law Journal and a Diversity Scorecard, the National Law Journal was already collecting “diversity” statistics as part of its annual NLJ 250 survey. Ten years ago, Steel Hector & Davis was the clear leader of the pack; database records show that 36% of its 168 attorneys were minority lawyers (18% were Hispanic-Americans) in 1998. This was before the methodology changed (in 2004). Minority percentages were still based on the total number of lawyers, rather than only on U.S.-based lawyers.

The same year (1998), Ohio-based Squire, Sanders & Dempsey reported that only 7.4% of its attorneys were minorities—not surprising for a firm based in the Midwest. Six years later, however, the firm—which had grown from 435 lawyers in 1998 to 742 lawyers in 2004—reported that slightly more than 13% of its attorneys were minorities, a very impressive expansion of its overall diversity.

And then in January of 2006, Squire Sanders acquired Steel Hector. (Though it was called a “merger,” Squire Sanders retained its own name, and the firm formerly known as Steel Hector disappeared from the annals of law firm history, and disappeared from the NLJ 250, The Am Law 200, and Diversity Scorecard). With the acquisition of a firm with such a large percentage of minority attorneys, you might expect that Squire Sanders’ percentage of minority lawyers would have climbed quite a bit in this year’s Scorecard. But you would be wrong.

In the 2007 Diversity Scorecard, Squire Sanders once again reported that slightly more than 13% of its attorneys were minorities, the same as before its acquisition of Steel Hector & Davis.

What’s the story? Well, that’s for the journalists and academic analysts to look into. At ALM Research, we simply provide the numbers. As a reminder, premium subscribers to the ALM Research Online database have access to the historical diversity data, which includes the years 1984, 1985, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2001 through 2006.