Paul Weiss LinkedIn post announcing new partners. (Via LinkedIn)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison has got an earful over one showing its latest partner promotions.

The firm’s now-deleted post on Linkedin this month announcing its new partner class of 12 lawyers - an image dominated by white men and showing only one (white) woman in the lower right corner - generated a burst of criticism on social media, including by some general counsel.

The comments highlight how promotion announcements of law firms are increasingly a hot topic of discussion by some general counsel, who may be assessing new partner classes to help make hiring decisions - and offering their own sometimes critical feedback.

For Paul Weiss' new partner announcement, the comments on LinkedIn came swiftly. One lawyer posted that he was inspired to require a check of diversity records of all service providers as a “condition of continued relationships,” while other in-house counsel said they were “dismayed by the homogeneity of this set of new partners” and called the announcement “very disappointing.” The firm appeared to have deleted the post on Tuesday.

Michelle Fang, chief legal officer at car-sharing company Turo, also spoke up, writing “GCs like me that hire law firms for bet-the-company litigation and other commercial or corporate matters want to see announcements” showing diverse new partners. She noted Cravath Swaine & Moore’s all-female new partner class of three lawyers.

Several other elite firms promoted few, if any, women this year. Davis Polk & Wardwell’s new partner class, announced in July, includes seven men and one woman, while Proskauer Rose promoted 11 new partners, including only two women.

Some corporate counsel point to even lower levels of ethnic and racial diversity in law firm promotions.

In a statement to ALM, Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said: “We certainly can - and will - do better. I regret the gender and racial imbalance in our newly elected partnership class (one woman, one Latino, one LGBTQ partner, only 25% diverse), which resulted from an idiosyncratic demographic pool and which I can assure you will not be repeated.”

“We intend to continue to play a leadership role in diversity in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation. We look forward to being judged not by our words, but by our results, in the years to come,” Karp said. “There is no more important issue to me (and the firm's leadership) than diversity and it is critical to me that Paul Weiss maintain its historic leadership role as a firm that champions diversity in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation.”

Karp pointed out the firm’s history in hiring and promoting diverse lawyers, noting Paul Weiss was the first major New York law firm to hire an African-American male associate and female associate, in the 1940s; the first major New York law firm to elect a female partner, in the 1940s; and the first major New York firm to have a diversity of religious beliefs among its partners.

Karp also noted that about one-third of the firm’s partnership are diverse, including women, people of color and LGBTQ partners, and the firm’s current first-year class is 55% women and 47%racially diverse and LGBTQ. Paul Weiss has also been ranked number one by the American Lawyer Diversity Scorecard, he noted.

A woman, Valerie Radwaner, serves as the firm’s deputy chair, and women lead more than 30% of its practice groups and departments, he said. “Our percentage of female, African-American and LGBTQ partners and associates greatly exceeds the average for New York and US law firms,” Karp said. “It would be unfortunate and disappointing if an idiosyncratic demographic pool in one particular year would erase the firm's diversity achievements over the past 75 years."

Karp intends to address the firm’s diversity values further during the firm’s next town hall meeting with associates, scheduled in January.

For his part, Davis Polk managing partner Tom Reid said in a statement that, “Diversity is a constant, generational challenge that we address seriously and sincerely. One of the reasons we adhere to a lockstep compensation structure is that it eliminates any gender- and diversity-based pay inequities.”

A Proskauer spokeswoman said the firm's chairman, Joseph Leccese, was not immediately available to comment.

'Vote with our pocketbooks'

Some corporate counsel say they are paying more attention to law firms' promotion announcements. “We want to see announcements that show diversity in the new partner class,” Fang said in an interview.

She said corporate counsel can make an impact on diversity when they choose law firms. "I really am trying to be thoughtful about our resources and how I deploy them. It’s extremely important that we vote with our pocketbooks” and “reward firms that are championing diversity and inclusion in how they promote and hire people," Fang said. "It’s not a token gesture.”

To be clear, Fang said, lawyers shouldn’t get ahead “only because they’re women or people of colour. It is diversity and inclusion and quality. It is the best people. You are going to find the best people of every race and every gender. White males don’t have a monopoly on talent.”

Fang also spoke on a common complaint among some firms - that it's difficult to build a diverse new partner class due to a pipeline challenge. “What is going on at that firm that people are opting out of the partnership track?" she asked. "There are best practices to help people in the pipeline.”

Jennifer Chaloemtiarana, general counsel and chief compliance officer of health care navigation company Castlight, said she doesn’t necessarily look at partner announcements alone, “but they are a sign of how the firm is handling diversity in the more junior ranks.”

“The partner announcement is merely the outcome of the work they have done leading up to that: were they diverse in their hiring? In their promotions? In the ‘choice’ work they were giving to associates? By the time they get to partner promotions, it is basically too late,” she said.

Another in-house lawyer, Sangeetha Raghunathan, general counsel of crowd-funding platform Indiegogo, said she recently checked the promotion announcements of the firms her company works with - with some disappointing results.

The company’s outside counsel guidelines encourage firms to staff cases with a diverse range of lawyers, she added.

Raghunathan said she plans to contact the firms she works with to encourage them to promote diversity in their firms, as part of an ongoing discussion of outside counsel guidelines. Law firm promotion announcements are now another factor to consider when hiring firms, she added.

“I know they’re coming from a good place. It’s a good reminder that their clients actually read these things and pay attention,” she said.