New Partners Break Barriers.

Wright and Gill Name Black Women Partners

MARIE-B. MILLER and Judy Robinson Wilber don't think of themselves as pioneers.

Both are partners in what traditionally have been predominantly white law firms. And as such, they may be pioneering the way for more African-American women to follow in their footsteps.

According to a report done for the American Bar Association, relatively few minority women attorneys join large corporate law firms. Most go to work for some governmental agency or they open their own practices. Of the few who do join a private law firm, fewer still stay with the firm long enough to become a partner.

So Miller, a partner at Gill Elrod Ragon Owen Skinner & Sherman, and Wilber, a partner at Wright Lindsey & Jennings, are the rare exceptions. Both Arkansas natives became partners in their firms in January.

While many women in the American Bar Association complained of discrimination in their law firms, Miller and Wilber both say they're unaware of any discrimination at their firms.

"Most clients want success," Miller said, and color or sex has nothing to do with that.

"Obviously I'm black, and obviously I'm a woman. After the obvious, it's what can I achieve for a client?" Miller said. "As long as a client feels I'm going to be diligent representing him, then [color] won't be a consideration."

The two women, who work only a block apart, had never met before last week, when Arkansas Business asked them to pose together for a photograph. It was at that meeting that the two talked of some of the problems of being black and female in a corporate law firm.

"Partners must be rainmakers' in bringing in clients," Wilber said. "But it's difficult for black women because we have no access to major clients. Our friends aren't the chief executive officers of the major companies. We haven't been associated with the influential people and go out and play golf with them."

Miller concurred. "Corporations and larger businesses should insist that their legal matters be handled by a diverse group of lawyers. And law firms have to make the decision to go out and seek minorities and women," she said.

'Dying on the Vine'

The two women's observations back up -- to some degree -- the findings of the American Bar Association's Commission on Opportunities for Minorities in the Profession. That panel's report, entitled "Miles to Go: Progress of Minorities in the Legal Profession," said the primary obstacle to minority advancement in law firms is a lack of access to clients. Although minorities have been entering large law firms at a steadily increasing rate, minority lawyers are "dying on the vine" because they cannot penetrate white business, the report said.

Nearly half the, minority partners in majority law firms who responded to a survey said the biggest hurdle in their practice is a "lack of contacts and business networks outside the firm."

Minority lawyers tend to lack contacts in "white-dominated corporate suites," the report continued, where most legal business is awarded. They also lack access to mentors and to informal internal networks for helping new lawyers generate their own business. Minority women, in particular, tend to have trouble finding mentors among white male partners, the report said.

As a result, most minorities leave majority law firms long before they are considered for partnerships and long before they attain enough status to serve as a resource for other minorities, the report said.

Almost 86 percent of minority women leave law firms before their seventh year of practice, compared to 76.6 percent of minority men and 74.6 percent of all associates, the report said.

"I've never had a reason to go elsewhere," Wilber said. She praised the advantages of being in-the Wright firm with its wealth of knowledgeable lawyers.

Miller, too, talked of the team system that operates at the Gill firm and her colleagues' willingness to assist each other.

The bar association report said the lack of mentoring by majority partners creates a "vicious non-mentoring cycle. Minorities don't get mentored so they leave. Because they leave, they don't get mentored."

The bar association report also said minority women claim they are "ghettoized" in certain areas of practice, and subject to constant scrutiny by employers who assume that they are incompetent. A 1994 study found that minority women today "encounter the same barriers to employment and advancement as their predecessors who entered the profession decades ago." Many reported being mistaken for support staff by other lawyers, clients and judges.

Wilber and Miller say they've never experienced that at their firms -- that their firms are team oriented and they feel free to bounce ideas off other lawyers in their firms.

Minority representation among the partners in large law firms has increased less than 2 percent in the past decade, and only 0.6 percent since 1991. Nationwide, minority representation among partners was 2.95 percent in 1996 and 2.97 percent in 1997, the report said.

Progress?

Wilber and Miller being named partners gives the perception that progress is being made by minorities in the legal profession in Little Rock, yet both lament that they are the only two.

Minority women are more likely than minority men to enter government and public-interest jobs, and the least likely to enter private practice, the bar report said. Only 47 percent of minority women law graduates enter private practice, compared to 52.8 percent of minority men and 57.3 percent of whites.

Ultimately, the reports said, the integration of the for-profit sector is a "client-driven phenomenon." If corporations demand diversity on their own legal staffs and those of outside law firms, minority lawyers will enjoy more success. Until that occurs, minority lawyers will continue to face significant obstacles to advancement in the private sector.

Another Level

"I like the fact of being a part of something bigger than myself," Miller said, and her personal history bears that out.

Miller grew up in Little Rock and graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy in 1969. She joined the Religious Sisters of Mercy in St. Louis and attended Maryville College there, graduating in 1975 with a degree in American government. After teaching a spell at Mount St. Mary, she went to law school at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, graduating in 1984.

She spent a period as a brief writer for Little Rock attorney John Walker before striking out on her own from 1986-1988. She left the Religious Sisters of Mercy order in 1986.

She then became a deputy prosecuting attorney under Chris Piazza before moving on to become assistant attorney general under Steve Clark and later deputy attorney general under Winston Bryant. It was there that she concentrated on Medicaid fraud cases, an area in which she's still involved.

At the Gill firm, she concentrates on employment law, product liability issues and trial law.

"It's the first time for corporate law experience, but it's a pleasant one," she said.

"John Gill asked me if I would be interested [in joining the firm]," Miller said. "I was honored John asked me that. I didn't see [the Gill firm] as a white male bastion at all. I saw it as another opportunity to move to another level in the practice of law.

"I had known John and felt good about him approaching me, and after meeting everyone in the firm, I felt very comfortable."

"The fact that I'm a black woman is not lost, but it wasn't a major factor," Miller said of her decision to join the firm.

The 'Wright Firm' for Her

Unlike Miller, who has a varied background in the legal profession, Wilber has never worked practiced law anywhere besides Wright Lindsey & Jennings.

After graduating from Crossett High School in 1986, she went to the University of Arkansas, finishing in 1990. She then went to the University of Texas Law School, where she was recognized as the outstanding criminal justice senior. While in school, she clerked at Wright Lindsey & Jennings for two summers. She joined the firm when she received her law degree in 1993.

Wilber's practice areas are civil litigation, including insurance defense, professional and product liability, and workers' compensation.

Wilber said she likes being part of one of the largest law firms in the state.

"The lawyers here are of the highest caliber I've ever seen. We all get along. There's mutual respect at all levels. And I'm able to learn from the best lawyers in Arkansas.

"Wright Lindsey & Jennings has been more progressive in terms of diversity," Wilber said. "It was the first major firm in the state to promote a woman to partner and the first to have an African-American partner."

Still, few black men have broken into the ranks of partner at traditionally white firms in Little Rock.

One is Troy Price, a partner at the Wright firm since 1995.

"Early on, the firm made a commitment to be receptive to diversity, to judge a person on merit, not color," Price said.

"As women like Miller and Wilber take on these roles as partners, they'll serve as evidence to women coming along that this route is open to them in a large firm setting."

                        Minority Representation in
                        Top-Paying Large Law Firms
     Associates African-American (%) Hispanic (%) Asian-American (%)
1980   4,849         100 (2.1)         31 (0.6)        44 (0.9)
1985   8,859         222 (2.5)         90 (1.0)       138 (1.6)
1990  11,457         295 (2.6)        153 (1.3)       295 (2.6)
      Partners
1980   3,225          12 (0.4)          6 (0.2)         4 (0.1)
1985   5,645          43 (0.8)         19 (0.3)        22 (0.4)
1990   6,509          54 (0.8)         32 (0.5)        41 (0.6)
     Total Minority (%)
1980     175 (3.6)
1985     450 (5.1)
1990     743 (6.5)
1980      22 (0.7)
1985      84 (1.5)
1990     127 (1.9)
Source: American Bar Association Commission
on Opportunities for Minorities in the Prefession
                  Size of Firms New Law School Graduates
                      Join by Minority Status (1996)
Firm Size White   Minority
Solo        4.9 %    4.9
2-10       34.7     24.6
11-50      18.3     13.3
51-100      6.9      6.9
101-250    10.8     12.8
251-500     9.4     14.4
501+        4.0      6.7
unknown    11.0     16.4
Total     100.0    100.0
Source: American Bar Association Commission
on Opportunities for Minorities in the
Profession