How Legal Analytics Can Help Promote Diversity at Law Firms

Law firms have always struggled to maintain a gender-balance. Though there has been significant growth in the number of women being hired by law firms, female recruits struggle to rise up the pecking order. Do they get to play significant roles in cases? How many of them are given an opportunity to be trial lawyers? The answers are concerning. Using legal analytics to boost diversity efforts may be the way towards fair recruitment and effective advancement initiatives.

American Bar Association has been promoting gender diversity among legal service providers. An ABA Resolution urged law firms and corporations to create opportunities for diverse attorneys and addressed clients to purchase legal services from diverse attorneys. ABA Commission on Women in the Law found out that almost half of the associates at a law firm were women, yet only 18 percent were equity partners or managing partners.

Just the way analytics assists law firms in determining case outcome, cost and, strategies, it can also provide performance data that encourages firms to present female attorneys with more opportunities. How exactly can legal analytics help law firms to come up with comprehensive recruitment and retention policies?

• A thorough study of the behavioral patterns of judges, juries, case and motion outcomes, can help firms to categorize attorneys based on their success in specific practice areas.

• Performance data can result in strategies to elevate women’s position in the courtroom, facilitating a rise in their profile at firms.

• Legal analytics can encourage better allocation of resources to female recruits, in turn, enhancing a firm’s retention policy.

Furthermore, firms can use legal analytics as a marketing tool to advertise their gender-diverse workplaces.