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Eh, my cousins are halfies and I probably wouldn't automatically know it just by looking.PeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
I was going to recommend that the OP add a 24-point Comic Sans entry to the top of his resume: "HALF ASIAN".dailygrind wrote:Eh, my cousins are halfies and I probably wouldn't automatically know it just by looking.PeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
That said, I doubt it matters enough to highlight.
Yeah this.Anonymous User wrote:Do you have any special language skills? If so, highlight that.
This is anecdotal, but from my personal experience and from observations of my peers, being Asian doesn't help in legal hiring. It probably hurts to some degree unless someone has an Asian practice they're trying to fit you in.
Are you in your school's Asian law society or Asian-American law student group? One thing about being Native American is that, for most people, your race isn't visually obvious, but having a NALSA position will at least alert recruiters and interviewers that you may be Native American.Anonymous User wrote:I am half Asian, so while not an URM, still technically diverse. I do not have anything highlighting this on my resume. Should I sneak it in in my interviews?
Why would it hurt you? I thought it was kind of rare to see Asians, especially South Asians, in law?Anonymous User wrote:Do you have any special language skills? If so, highlight that.
This is anecdotal, but from my personal experience and from observations of my peers, being Asian doesn't help in legal hiring. It probably hurts to some degree unless someone has an Asian practice they're trying to fit you in.
No mean to disrespect your view but funny that you think that asians are over-represented when they're usually representative of 2~15% of total associates.... 20% at best at few cali based big law.dailygrind wrote:I dunno what the stats are for South Asians, but I think Asians in general are over represented at large law firms. There's a poor conversion rate from associate to partner, though.
Barrred wrote:Interests: Being Asian
lol not necessarilyPeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
Think it can vary widely by office and practice group. For instance, I'm in Boston and there are very, very few Asians in this market. In the leadership ranks it's even worse. In every firm I've been in here, I've been the only Asian associate in my group. I think I might have been the only minority associate actually.dailygrind wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120277 ... n-Partners
11% associates are Asian, while Asians are about 6% of the overall pop? Even if you figure in the 3% partner figure, Asians are over-repped in big law.
This isn't to say that there is (or should be) a cap on Asians in big law, just to say that there isn't likely to be much of a diversity boost from OP making it known he's half.
How can you say that asians are over represented? Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.dailygrind wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120277 ... n-Partners
11% associates are Asian, while Asians are about 6% of the overall pop? Even if you figure in the 3% partner figure, Asians are over-repped in big law.
This isn't to say that there is (or should be) a cap on Asians in big law, just to say that there isn't likely to be much of a diversity boost from OP making it known he's half.
Has being Asian (or half Asian) ever been sufficient to get someone an offer who otherwise wouldn't have gotten an offer if they were white? Genuinely curious if "Asian" gets any diversity bump whatsoever.Anonymous User wrote:I'm on the Diversity Committee at a V50 firm. I recommend trying to work it in if you have something genuine to say about being half Asian, such as involvement in bar associations or student organizations. But if you have none and nevertheless try to work it in, I will sniff it out and it will hurt you.
Doesn't that suggest they're overrepresented at the associate level and underrepresented at the partner level?Anonymous User wrote:How can you say that asians are over represented? Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.dailygrind wrote:http://www.americanlawyer.com/id=120277 ... n-Partners
11% associates are Asian, while Asians are about 6% of the overall pop? Even if you figure in the 3% partner figure, Asians are over-repped in big law.
This isn't to say that there is (or should be) a cap on Asians in big law, just to say that there isn't likely to be much of a diversity boost from OP making it known he's half.
I suggest that you read https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... ePages.pdf
11% associates of the 225 surveyed vault law firms are asians. In the National Association for Law Placement’s 2016 report on major U.S. law firms,
Asians comprised 7.0% of attorneys. Law360's surveys for 2015 yielded 6%. Asians are NOT over represented in big law.
Why not? Isn't the baseline by which the under/over-represented statistics are computed that particular ethnic group's representation in the overall US population? (Or maybe a better baseline would be the group's representation in a given city/state's population, which would account for the previous poster's comment that CA has more Asian lawyers, as they make up a larger percentage of the population in California.)Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
I suppose you could look at the % of asians in law school and compare that with the % of asians in biglaw to see if they are underrepresented in biglaw. Like if 20% of all law students (JD, not LLM) are asian and only 11% make it to biglaw there could be something. But this is a little silly overall i think. The question is really whether asians get a diversity boost or not.Barrred wrote:Why not? Isn't the baseline by which the under/over-represented statistics are computed that particular ethnic group's representation in the overall US population? (Or maybe a better baseline would be the group's representation in a given city/state's population, which would account for the previous poster's comment that CA has more Asian lawyers, as they make up a larger percentage of the population in California.)Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
What is the alternative measure of under-representation? I guess you could say that any group making up less than 50% (a "minority") of a profession is "under-represented" but that seems silly.
One might also make a comparison with representation in comparable white-collar professions (e.g., tech, finance, medicine) and at elite UGs.lolwat wrote:I suppose you could look at the % of asians in law school and compare that with the % of asians in biglaw to see if they are underrepresented in biglaw. Like if 20% of all law students (JD, not LLM) are asian and only 11% make it to biglaw there could be something. But this is a little silly overall i think. The question is really whether asians get a diversity boost or not.Barrred wrote:Why not? Isn't the baseline by which the under/over-represented statistics are computed that particular ethnic group's representation in the overall US population? (Or maybe a better baseline would be the group's representation in a given city/state's population, which would account for the previous poster's comment that CA has more Asian lawyers, as they make up a larger percentage of the population in California.)Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
What is the alternative measure of under-representation? I guess you could say that any group making up less than 50% (a "minority") of a profession is "under-represented" but that seems silly.
I do tend to agree that it seems most asians get put into IP or asia-based practices. There are very likely some general double edged sword stereotypes that make asians perhaps somewhat more desirable in certain circumstances and practices but less so in others (and make it more difficult to make partner).