February 28, 2022 — Partner and DRI President Douglas Burrell was featured in a Law360 article discussing his career path, his role as President of DRI – known as “Lawyers Representing Business” – and the current issues with on how an increase in diversity among associates struggles to translate to the partnership level.
“They’re hiring these attorneys, but they aren’t nurturing them to get to the partnership levels. It is unfathomable to me that law firms — that have the brainpower that they do — have not been able to figure out the issue of how to support diverse attorneys so they can become partners in the law firms.”
Douglas Burrell, Partner & DRI President
Douglas’ 15 years of work with DRI culminated in his inauguration as president of DRI in October 2021, making him one of four active Black presidents of the nation’s top legal organizations. Douglas has stated he looks forward to more collaboration amongst the four organizations and hopes they can inspire other Black attorneys and attorneys of color who look to impact the legal industry. Douglas stresses the importance of legal organizations such as DRI in the push for greater diversity.
According to the National Association for Law Placement’s 2021 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms, only 8.64% of partners at firms with 101-250 lawyers are people of color. People of color at the associate level make up 22.2% of all associates.
Click the link below to read the full article.*
*Article behind a paywall.