Men and women of elite law firms: Reevaluating Kanter's legacy

This paper tests the effects of minority partner representation on minority associate representation in a sample of 97 law firms from 1980 to 1990. We perform separate analyses for women, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asi an Americans, and eve consider both within-group and cross-group effects. W e find that minority partner representation has a positive effect on minori ty associate representation, which is statistically significant in the case of women and Asian Americans. Our findings are consistent with lawyers' ow n accounts, which emphasize the impact of partner composition on the distri bution of rewards within law firms. We also show how our findings clarify p revious studies about the effects of minority representation on the distrib ution of organizational rewards, focusing particularly on Kanter's work and subsequent related research.