I think part of it is a lack of mentors, people you can go to with any issue that you have. I think that mentoring seems to occur more naturally when you do have people of similar backgrounds. Experts say that for minority lawyers to remain in a firm, they must be convinced that they have a future there. Crouch, who left a law firm for Pfizer, endorses that view on the basis of practical experience. It s ludicrous to just bring people in.
Smart businesspeople recognize that.
Crouch also says a firm should distinguish the factors that affect all its lawyers from those that may relate more directly to diversity concerns. That s an issue that you face because that s what law firms expect of people. That s endemic to the law firm practice. What s not endemic is isolation, being excluded from working on the firm s best cases, not being part of the inner circle. Those are things that law firms have to change.