The recruiter appeared to be recommending her for a position at midsize law firm Kleinbard, for which she was "too senior." But, the recruiter added, "she is female and diversity [sic] which means we should send her anyway."

Reached about the tweet, Steve Kruza, president of Kruza Legal Search confirmed that he authored the email from the screenshot. He also said he still has a lot to learn about diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal industry, and he's committed to "doing better." He said he's seeking out professional diversity training through Cornell University.

The associate declined to comment for this story.

Kruza added, in a statement: "As a legal recruiter, I have been and will continue to be part of the effort to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession. If we truly want to do that, we can't be afraid to talk about it. That means that sometimes we will make mistakes. Sometimes we'll say something the wrong way. When we do, we have to take ownership of and be ready to learn from those mistakes."

Kleinbard managing partner Matt Haverstick said he doesn't recall what seniority requirements of his firm were being referred to in the email. He said diversity and inclusion has become a major focus for the Philadelphia legal industry in recent years, forcing recruiters and law firms to rethink how to go about responsibly recruiting.

"It's not a well-thought-out correspondence," Haverstick said about the tweeted email. "All of us need to be sensitive to how our communications are going to be read and perceived by someone who is in a less privileged position."

Merle Vaughn, legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa.

Merle Vaughn, a Los Angeles-based Major, Lindsey & Africa recruiter focusing on diverse recruitment, added the recruiter should at least get some credit for at least making an attempt to refer a young African American woman attorney to a local firm looking to increase their diversity, even if the email was inartfully worded.

"The problem with diversity in recruiting is that not enough recruiters are actually making an effort to promote diverse candidates," she noted.

Sources of the problem

According to the 2020 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms, an annual survey by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), African American partners and associates exceeded 2% and 5%, respectively, for the first time in 2020.

In 2020, the percentage of associates who are Black women hit 3.04%, the first advancement over 11 years from 2.93% in 2009.

The report is based on information from the 2020-21 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, which includes attorney race, ethnicity and gender information for nearly 101,000 partners, associates and other lawyers in 883 offices, and for over 6,700 summer associates in 592 offices nationwide.

One of the problems is that "A lot of people in the law business think that diversity, equity and inclusion is taking something away from someone," said Ron Jordan, senior principal director at Carter-White & Shaw, which places African American legal professionals in Am Law 100 and 200 firms.

He pointed to the growing profits of law firms even through the COVID-19 pandemic, adding "money is not a problem; it's just a matter of dividing up responsibilities for a more equitable business."

Recruiters who focus on placing members of underrepresented groups say the demand for their services surged in the aftermath of national news about police brutality and other forms of systemic injustice. Recruiters and headhunters interviewed for this story say pressures to diversify a law firm's roster are primarily client-driven.

"A harsh way to say this is Black people shouldn't have to die in order for law firms to call me when they need my help," Jordan said. "They should want more parity in their profession that's changing rapidly."

Jordan said recruiters are frequently taught to cater toward a law firm's bottom line, without focusing sufficiently on the needs of the individual candidates. This is especially problematic, he said, when firms direct their efforts to increasing the number of women and people of color in their pipeline without fostering an inclusive culture at their firms.

What's kept many firms back from fostering a diverse and inclusive workspace is an unwillingness to alter their recruitment strategies, Vaughn said. She said firms looking to increase the diversity and inclusion of their culture can't simply rely on opportunistic recruitment and have to be more intentional in hiring a diverse pool of candidates.

"Firms need to see what they're willing to do differently in their process to get a different result," she said. "In order to be successful, they need to identify a specific opportunity and provide the recruiter with what the sell is for that opportunity in their firm."

Addressing the issue with 'intentionality'

Lloyd Freeman. Courtesy photo

In recent years, headhunting officials at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney said the firm has grown its internal referrals to one-third of the firm's current overall recruitment pipeline. Lloyd Freeman, chief diversity and inclusion officer, said this has allowed the firm to make stronger connections with prospective candidates through law firm employees.

"The more that [firm employees] are proud of of the programming that we're doing, the more that people in their networks can see that," Freeman said.

For Freeman, fostering an equitable workplace doesn't end with developing a diverse pipeline of candidates. He said diversity has to play a role at every level of human resources management: recruitment, retention and evaluation.

"You could think you're doing a great job [with diversity] because you are positioning yourself in new areas to advertise your job postings or conduct your interviews, and that could mean your candidate pool is getting more and more diverse," Freeman said. "But if we find that our actual hires are not reflecting that intentionality, that would show by seeing what diversity is really like at all levels throughout the firm. There's a difference between positioning yourself for a diverse candidate pool and actually looking at the diversity you're actually able to achieve."

Dani Rosetti. Courtesy photo

Legal recruiters say one of the main factors keeping firms from their D&I goals is a recruitment strategy targeted at legacy law schools.

Freeman said the process of recruiting a diverse pipeline of candidates must include a focus on underrepresented law schools and historically black colleges, and making sure interviewers who are screening candidates are aware of their unconscious biases. These tactics, he said, allow the firm to focus more on the "ability" of candidates rather than their "credentials" or industry connections.

Buchanan tracks the success of their inclusivity efforts by evaluating the latest cohort of every 10 hires at the firm, said Dani Rosetti, the firm's chief talent officer, triggering a meeting between Lloyd and members of her recruitment team.

"Every time we hit 10 hires … we get together and we talk about whether or not we are satisfied with the diversity of that group," Rosetti said. "Taking that pause every few hires and doing some reflection has been really helpful to do these post-mortems and course corrections or repeat things that we're doing well."

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