The legal industry will need to evolve our approach to business development if we’re going to drive substantial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) change within our community, especially for lawyers from historically marginalized communities. Decades of data collection, spanning different hierarchical levels (associates, counsel, partners, equity partners and leadership) and diverse backgrounds (race, gender, ethnicity, and LGBTQ+), vividly illustrate the extensive work required to align our industry, workplace, and leadership with our aspirations. Looking closely at the data about how business, profit, and wealth is spread across these various identity groups, we can see how much work is yet to be done.
Traditional DEI initiatives are not enough to dismantle the barriers that block positive shifts in business development structures.
Frankly, the obstacles are too intertwined with money, power, and established business pipelines. To put it another way, even if we each individually address our own biases, engage in difficult conversations, and counteract — those in authority would still be reluctant to change. The perceived threat to their personal access to relationships, business opportunities and wealth is a significant driver of their actions. When money and deeply ingrained institutional practices are at stake, a thicker set of barriers goes up, and the resistance to changing them can be formidable. And yet, it’s because of these high stakes that the urgency to confront and rectify these challenges becomes paramount.
The business landscape is evolving. Corporate clients, lawyers of various backgrounds, and the pipeline of law students are placing a premium on DEI. The investment in DEI can appeal to these stakeholders and engage a broader market share. In essence, it’s not just about doing what’s right, but also about ensuring a diverse, skilled, and client-ready pool of future firm leaders, while aligning with the evolving workplace and marketplace. Having coached thousands of lawyers in business development through one-on-one sessions and growth-focused workshops, I’ve gained insights into a range of nuanced and recurring challenges. By exploring these types of issues, we can identify opportunities to uncover, address, and overcome these challenges. This article aims to broaden our perspective by highlighting real-life examples of systemic, interpersonal, and personal challenges. Developing a deeper understanding of these issues can inspire our collective effort to deconstruct and reimagine the longstanding systems, patterns, and behaviors behind them, ultimately paving the way for a more equitable future.
Systemic Challenges
Greater Transparency in Credit Sharing
Business origination credits are typically complex structures. Underrepresented lawyers frequently face obstacles in securing origination credit that’s rightfully theirs due to these complexities. They may hesitate to discuss obtaining credit for clients they’ve secured, especially when navigating power dynamics with senior lawyers or pre-existing client relationships. This hesitancy maintains inequalities and can stymie career growth. Addressing this challenge necessitates a close review of origination credit procedures — both formal policy and actual application. Consider developing more visibility into the process. A transparent approach can mitigate unconscious biases, ensuring every lawyer, regardless of their background, comprehends the expectations around credit allocation. Such clarity levels the playing field, helping all lawyers understand how to access these vital resources.
Challenge Traditional Business Pipelines
Traditional business pipelines often unintentionally create barriers for diverse lawyers. Established networks between long-standing clients, referral partners, and key associates can prove difficult for women, lawyers of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyers to penetrate. Consider the dynamics where a seasoned corporate partner holds an exclusive referral line to a litigation colleague. For newcomers, breaking into such a network can feel insurmountable. To advance inclusivity, law firms should proactively evaluate, disrupt, and diversify these conventional pipelines — for both external client relationships and internal cross-selling practices. A dangerous pitfall exists when lawyer’s base client referrals depend on a narrow understanding of “cultural fit.” LGBTQ+ lawyers, for instance, often face prejudices related to client expectations. A partner, who identifies as gay, recently shared how his firm’s apprehension about foreign clients accepting his sexual identity affected their support for his client relationships. Similarly, gender biases persist. Some women lawyers, due to their assertive communication style, find doors to mentorship and key partnerships closed, simply because they defy traditional expectations. It’s vital to recognize and counteract these biases. Determining a lawyer’s potential based on outdated perceptions can drastically alter career trajectories. As an industry, we must challenge such biases to foster genuine inclusivity.
Support Capacity Hiring
The path to a larger book of business and stronger client relationships frequently involves making strategic investments in building the capacity to accommodate potential incoming work. Many women of color in the legal profession encounter barriers to growing their practices because of bureaucratic obstacles when attempting to expand their teams. Encountering resistance or feedback about potential candidates such as “they’re not the right fit” or “we don’t hire that way” can stifle a blossoming practice. The talent acquisition process, if overly restrictive beyond the usual challenges of finding skilled candidates, can inadvertently undermine the growing practice of the diverse lawyers in your firm. Examine your process for hiring and avoid creating barriers through false assumptions about suitable candidates and practices. The restrictive consequences can be especially limiting for lawyers from marginalized backgrounds who are, nevertheless, evidencing their potential for practice growth through consistent client work, strong relationships, and heavy client demands.
Champion Marketing Resources
Marginalized lawyers, despite their legal prowess and client dedication, often face undue resistance when proposing fresh ideas for marketing resources. For instance, some women partners encounter resistance when proposing events aimed at cultivating relationships with female general counsels, merely because “it’s never been done,” despite the clear potential. Similarly, senior associates of color may encounter skepticism when identifying opportunities in emerging markets, such as M&A activities in their native countries — opportunities that later prove invaluable. Decision-makers should prioritize equitable resource allocation and recognize the stifling effect of outdated reluctance against innovative endeavors. This is vital for nurturing the growth of diverse talents.
Interpersonal Challenges
Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches in Credit Conversations
The conversation on equitable origination credit extends beyond systemic aspects there’s also an interpersonal dynamic. Therefore, it warrants raising the issue twice in this article. When lawyers shy away from discussions about credit sharing, they perpetuate a cycle of invisibility and inequality, stunting their professional growth and recognition. Beyond individual ramifications, this also deprives firms of the advantages that diverse talent offers in terms of innovation and growth potential. Achieving change demands efforts from both junior and senior lawyers. Juniors need the tools to assertively seek their due credit, while seniors must recognize the benefits of sharing power. Leadership should champion transparency in policy, but the practical application lies in training lawyers how to conduct difficult conversations around credit allocation. This means empowering underrepresented junior lawyers to self-advocate and encouraging legacy holders to embrace the broader benefits of shared power. By involving everyone in this dialogue, we can dismantle existing barriers, challenge established norms, and pave the way for a legal industry where origination credit — and the resulting success — is a genuine reflection of collaborative effort, rather than just the out-come of established power dynamics.
Getting Real with Feedback
The failure of leaders to provide critical feed-back across diverse backgrounds, be it gender, race, or ethnicity, disproportionately impacts women and minority lawyers in their business development. I recently consulted a practice group leader hesitant about promoting two women of color to partnership. While he had years to plan their growth, he only recently voiced his concerns. The delay, driven by his reluctance to give direct feedback, jeopardizes their progression and firm tenure. When leaders withhold feedback from women and minorities out of fear, discomfort, or bias, they obstruct these lawyers’ insight into areas for growth. This not only impedes their progress but suggests a lack of trust in their ability to handle critique, undermining professional bonds. Such a dynamic can lead to promotions based more on comfort and bias than merit, threatening firm reputation and prompting talented individuals to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Feedback mechanisms must be equitable, creating a space where every lawyer, regardless of background, can succeed. Leaders need the capability and cultural competence to provide critical feedback consistently with all team members.
Awareness of the Debt of Gratitude Tax
Lawyers focused on growing their practice are often raised at the firm by a more established senior partner, causing the more junior lawyer to feel they owe a Debt of Gratitude Tax. The well-established partners are accustomed
to having their way, often resulting in them steamrolling over the junior lawyers when it comes to making decisions. Consequently, the more junior lawyer might refrain from asserting themselves in situations where their mentors encroach on their space, avoid confrontation when pursuing client relationships or expanding their book of business, and exhibit more deference in the face of territorial challenges, including conflicts and credit matters. The ability to confidently and appropriately challenge the individuals that champion one’s career requires resources, training, and support.
Addressing Succession Planning Bias
Rainmakers should be encouraged to adopt a DEI perspective in succession planning for their client portfolios, as this can significantly influence the career progression of diverse lawyers. Traditional succession planning in law firms can be clouded by bias, leading to near retirees to groom individuals who seem most similar to themselves, thus reinforcing homogeneity in client handovers and leadership positions. True commitment to DEI requires an introspective examination of which partners are being primed to inherit major client relationships and helm practice areas. Firms should also pay attention to the next generation of leaders within their client base, as they may not look like the leaders who will be retiring soon. Including diverse lawyers in these plans amplifies their professional standing within the firm. Without these opportunities, diverse lawyers might face diminished visibility, negatively affecting their prospects for promotions, leadership roles, and compensation adjustments.
Personal Challenges
Making Asks in Uncomfortable Spaces
Firms that invest in teaching junior diverse lawyers “how to make an ask” demonstrate their commitment to fostering the future success of these lawyers. The unspoken norms and methods of “making the ask” can seem elusive. For some, learning to make an ask
of people who have a different cultural back-ground is much more meaningful. I coached a Black male partner whose practice focused on defending high-net-wealth individuals in criminal investigations. He often discredited himself early in the business development process by assuming the potential defendants in these positions would likely already have counsel connections and would not want to meet with him — especially because he did not share a similar background with the potential clients. “Why would they want to meet with me, they probably already have their people.”
Many lawyers are uncomfortable building relationships and making asks in unfamiliar environments or outside of their cultural comfort zone. Recognizing this disparity and investing in helping them level the playing field can have a significant impact. For instance, lawyers can benefit from ongoing involvement in their affinity bar associations. At the same time, junior diverse lawyers should try to diversify their networks by actively engaging in industry conferences or events that attract a broader range of potential clients, regardless of cultural background. Encouraging these lawyers to step outside their typical comfort zones can boost their confidence in approaching a more extensive client base, leading to significant improvements in their growth potential.
Trouble Saying No
Many lawyers from marginalized backgrounds are brought up and trained with a “helper” mindset, prioritizing the well-being of those around them. Unfortunately, this can lead
to them neglecting their own needs. I have coached several clients on how to say “no”
to the many incoming requests on their time so they can focus more on their own business goals and the relationships that matter to them. Counterbalancing the feeling that you must serve everyone around you is not
a simple task and can be a hard pattern for some to break. A coaching investment in team members who exhibit this people-pleasing pattern at their own peril can significantly influence the trajectory of their careers. I’ve witnessed several lawyers who have released the “people-pleasing” mindset and shifted their focus toward their own practice growth — leading to a significant boost in their book of business.
Having Difficult Conversations
In the realm of DEI and business development, it is apparent from the points discussed earlier that being skilled in the art of conducting difficult conversations is crucial. Providing training to both traditional rainmakers and future leaders on effectively addressing issues such as client sharing, collaborative pitching, credit distribution, constructive feedback, mentorship, and power dynamics is imperative. Although lawyers are trained in making an argument in court, the training often falls short for those who struggle with initiating these discussions within the office or with clients. Providing training and resources to help lawyers navigate these conversations can break down barriers, promote transparency and increase access.
Seeing Yourself at the Top
In the journey to promote diversity and equity in the legal space, a critical element often stands out: representation. It’s difficult to become what you can’t visualize, and this becomes especially challenging when leaders and systems neglect their duty to foster a fair and merit-based environment with equal opportunities to thrive. During a recent visit to a law firm, a significant issue came to the forefront. Many women associates shared their sentiments of discouragement, rooted in a stark reality — the lack of partners who resemble them both in gender and race and who have achieved substantial success in leadership roles. This challenge is not unique to a single firm; it ripples across the legal industry. An absence of diverse leaders can inadvertently communicate to junior lawyers that certain paths are less accessible, less attainable, and less encouraged. It reinforces a sense of not “belonging.”
Implementing strategies like mentorship, fostering open and honest conversations, tailoring leadership development, providing constructive feedback, enacting inclusive policies, and nurturing an authentic workplace culture are vital steps in creating an environment where diverse talents can thrive. These actions empower every lawyer to aim for the pinnacle of success, regardless of their background or identity.
Continued Investigation
DEI work can feel like going backwards on a conveyor belt, challenging business development structures that are in conflict with DEI values can feel like walking upwards on an escalator moving against you. As law firms focus attention on bringing greater racial and gender equity to their practices, it’s time to examine how business development culture has impact-ed lawyers from historically underrepresented backgrounds and identify opportunities for systemic change. By adjusting perspectives and procedures, firms can ensure marginalized lawyers receive the support they need, reaping the rewards of a broader, more diverse client base in the process.
