BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Efforts to improve the diversity of the Cincinnati legal community is beginning to make headway.
The Cincinnati Bar Association gathered Sunday to celebrate diversity in the local legal community. They found that there are more minorities among their ranks that 10 years ago. Yet, the numbers are still too small, said John J. Williams, president of the Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati.
"We definitely don't reflect our numbers in the community," Mr. Williams said.
Of the 2,832 Hamilton County lawyers counted in the 1990 census, 54 were black, or 1.9 percent. That compares unfavorably to the 20.9 percent of all county residents who are African-Americans, and the 3.5 percent of all Ohio lawyers who are black.
The ranks of African-American lawyers in Hamilton County is now closer to 175, Mr. Williams said. The Black Lawyers Association has about 90 active members.
Mr. Williams points to programs at law schools that encourage minority youths to pursue careers, and help them once they get there as ways to boost the number of minority lawyers.
Yet, behind the numbers, there are indications that there is still work to be done, he said. Greater Cincinnati's 25 largest law firms employ about 1,160 lawyers, but just 23 of those lawyers are African-American, a Black Lawyers Association survey found. "That means several of those firms have none," noted Mr. Williams, who is an assistant solicitor for the city of Cincinnati.
Mr. Williams adds that succeeding in the legal world is a matter of whom you know. And many minorities don't have the connections that land them jobs at those top firms. Many graduates start out in lower-paying government positions or at smaller firms, he said.
Concerted effort
Great strides are being made to foster the relationship between large firms and minority law students, said Joseph Tomain, dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Law. In the past 10 years, the number of minority students at UC's law school has risen, as has the number of female law students.
The Black Lawyers Association offers scholarships and runs a tutoring program to help minority law students with their studies. Several other groups do the same, Mr. Tomain said. And there are a number of firms stepping up their recruitment efforts to foster diversity.
This past school year, there were 363 students in the law school. Thirty-one were black, or 8.5 percent, and 54 percent were women. During the 1988-89 school year, there were 383 students at the UC law school; 27 students, or 7 percent, were black, and 45 percent were female.
While the numbers show a slight increase, what Mr. Tomain takes pride in is that virtually all the school's minority students end up graduating, and all graduates are placed in jobs. He called it a testimony to the efforts of the local legal community.
"We are fairly aggressive when it comes to diversity. This is an important value we must have," Mr. Tomain said.
The school programs, along with those to ameliorate relationships already in the profession, have been part of a concerted effort the past 10 years, said Bea V. Larsen, former president of the Cincinnati Bar Association and one of the organizers of Sunday's gathering. In a move to make the Cincinnati Bar Association a more inclusive organization, it helped form the Round Table in 1987 with the Black Lawyers Association, Ms. Larsen said. The objective was to promote opportunities for minority lawyers.
Long way to go
The Round Table is restructuring to increase the success it has had fostering minority law students, to boost commercial work for minority lawyers, to develop programs that help keep minority lawyers in Cincinnati, and to promote involvement in the Black Lawyers Association and the local bar, she said.
Sunday's gathering at Mount Airy Park was a way to allow minority lawyers and their families to meet others in the local legal community and build those personal relationships that can develop into professional relationships, Ms. Larsen said.
"This is a time to celebrate the work that's been going on," Ms. Larsen said. "There's been headway made, but there's a long way to go."
