How Law Firms Can Increase Diversity Among Equity Partners

• Publication year: 2020
• Author: Maria A. Sager, Esq.

How Law Firms Can Increase Diversity among Equity Partners

Maria A. Sager, Esq.

Oakland, California

Note: A version of this article was published in ABA Journal online on September 10, 2020.

I often tell the legal students I mentor that I know how lucky I am to be where I am today.

I am a multi-ethnic female lawyer; my father is Italian and my mother Salvadoran. I also am someone who overcame the challenges associated with immigrating to the United States at age four and being raised in poverty, primarily by a single mother who did not know how to read, write, or speak English.

I mentor students at Centro Legal de la Raza's Youth Law Academy, where I serve on their advisory committee in Oakland, California. I share these vulnerabilities with these students to help them see that if I could beat the odds, so can they.

I felt compelled to tell my own story after reading that "only 2 percent of equity law partners at large law firms are women of color" in ABA Journal's June 22, 2020, article titled, "Majority of minority female lawyers consider leaving law; ABA study explains why." I hope my personal story will help increase this percentage by offering tools to other women lawyers and inspiring changes to law firm culture.

I am an equity law partner at one of the largest and most respected applicant workers' compensation law firms in Oakland, Boxer & Gerson, where I have represented injured workers for nearly 20 years. So how did I end up where I am today? I believe it has to do with a little bit of luck, a lot of hard work, and, most important, joining a law firm that treats its lawyers exactly as Boxer & Gerson has treated me. From my very first day they have shown me respect, assigned engaged and meaningful mentors, and established a culture that recognizes my contributions. If more law firms treated their associates and partners as my firm has treated me, that 2 percent number would undoubtedly increase, as the ABA study suggests.

My story at Boxer & Gerson began in 2003, soon after I became a lawyer, when I responded to their ad for a Spanish-speaking workers' compensation lawyer. That resulted in interviews with four of the firm's senior partners. All these years later, I still remember founding partner Stewart Boxer's comment, at the end of the interview, that I had his vote.

The firm offered me an associate lawyer position, which I accepted. It was one of the best decisions of my life, right after deciding to become a lawyer—due to my father's sound advice—and...