The Evolving Development of Minority Partners at Big Law Firms: A Critical Incident Study

Abstract

This case study explores African American attorneys’ accounts about critical incidents that influenced their decisions to leave or stay at Big Law Firms (BLF) in Central Florida thus resulting in an underrepresentation of the group in partnership positions. A purposive sample of 10 African American attorneys was used to collect over twenty incidents. The participants’ insight encompassed demographics and responses to interview questions. The findings developed from analyzing responses to semi-structured open-ended interview questions, examining records, and reviewing the literature. The collected data were coded and matched with responses to interview questions as well as the research questions. Manual analysis was performed on the data which revealed important emergent themes relating to: (a) mentoring, (b) diversity, and (c) leadership development. Applying the findings from the study might be valuable to leaders from BLF in developing policies to overcome employment obstacles that hinder advancement of African American attorneys to partnership levels.