According to this story, sixty major New York law firms have agreed to create a database containing the race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation of each of their lawyers. As I understand it, the firms have agreed to supplement their usual billing statements for corporate clients with an extra report of the hours worked broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation of the lawyers assigned to the client.

  Apparently, the new practice is client-driven. A number of corporate clients want to decide what firms to hire and fire based on the race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation of the lawyers working on their cases, and the firms have now agreed to provide that information. As one person quoted in the story explains, a firm that assigns a team of lawyers with a gender/race/orientation mix that the client does not approve of will now be "history."

  I have enabled comments. As always, civil and respectful comments only.