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I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:12 pm

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?

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:22 pm

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.

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PeanutsNJam

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by PeanutsNJam » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:35 pm

I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.

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dailygrind

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by dailygrind » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:47 pm

PeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
Eh, my cousins are halfies and I probably wouldn't automatically know it just by looking.

That said, I doubt it matters enough to highlight.

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cavalier1138

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by cavalier1138 » Mon Jul 24, 2017 7:04 pm

dailygrind wrote:
PeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
Eh, my cousins are halfies and I probably wouldn't automatically know it just by looking.

That said, I doubt it matters enough to highlight.
I was going to recommend that the OP add a 24-point Comic Sans entry to the top of his resume: "HALF ASIAN".

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Barrred » Mon Jul 24, 2017 7:16 pm

Interests: Being Asian

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by lolwat » Mon Jul 24, 2017 8:59 pm

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.
Yeah this.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:17 pm

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?
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.

But also, like others above have said, Asian-American isn't always a soft boost the same way that being black/Latinx/Native American can be (but isn't always).

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by dbalkaran » Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:30 pm

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.
Why would it hurt you? I thought it was kind of rare to see Asians, especially South Asians, in law?

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by dailygrind » Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:25 pm

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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:49 pm

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.
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.

Also, if you meant that asians are over-represented out of the overall minority, yeah, that might be true but like you said, there's a poor conversion rate and asians are back to being ~3%. And if you were talking about this, then asians are "minority," and by no means, over represented at large law firms..

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by dailygrind » Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:54 pm

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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 25, 2017 8:54 am

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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by grand inquisitor » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:10 am

Barrred wrote:Interests: Being Asian

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Bach-City » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:15 am

.
Last edited by Bach-City on Mon Aug 28, 2017 12:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by acr » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:33 am

PeanutsNJam wrote:I think your interviewer can tell you're half Asian by looking at you.
lol not necessarily

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:31 am

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.
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.

Also, while Asians might be overrepresented in the associate/staff attorney ranks, they strongly tend to be in corporate groups (with an Asia transactional practice) and in intellectual property. This is because they have language skills and cultural sensitivities that are helpful with Asian clients, or they have STEM backgrounds useful to an IP group.

When it comes time for promotion though, being Asian is proves to be harmful.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:44 am

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.

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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by PeanutsNJam » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:50 am

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.
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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
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.

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.
Doesn't that suggest they're overrepresented at the associate level and underrepresented at the partner level?

If the problem is moving from associate to partner, there's no incentive for firms to hire more Asian associates - the issue is later in their careers. (Which isn't to say everything is hunky dory, just going to the question of whether identifying as Asian will help the OP.)

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:03 pm

I typically mention my diversity in my cover letter. Something along the lines of "Additionally, as a Hispanic American I am further attracted to [FIRM] because of your commitment to diversity as evident through [firm diversity statement]".

I also state on my resume that I'm a student member of the [STATE] Hispanic Bar Association and a member of [SCHOOL] Hispanic Bar Association.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Barrred » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:04 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
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.)

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.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by BlueParrot » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:26 pm

I wouldn't worry about going out of your way to show that your Asian. I don't believe it provides much if any boost in legal hiring- much like other fields.

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by lolwat » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:44 pm

Barrred wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
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.)

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 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.

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).

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Re: I am Asian but do not have it listed on my resume...

Post by Hikikomorist » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:10 pm

lolwat wrote:
Barrred wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Asians are about 6% of the OVERALL U.S. population. You can't compare that with the % of associates.
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.)

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 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.

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).
One might also make a comparison with representation in comparable white-collar professions (e.g., tech, finance, medicine) and at elite UGs.

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