HONOLULU

An American Indian attorney is asked where she keeps her tomahawk. White male partners look past a Black lawyer, assuming she is clerical staff. An Asian attorney is called a “dragon lady” when she asserts herself.

A study by the American Bar Association says those real-life experiences, along with more subtle forms of discrimination, are prompting growing numbers of minority women to abandon the nation’s biggest law firms.

“We’re not even talking about trying to get up through a glass ceiling; we’re trying to stay above ground,” says Paulette Brown, co-chairwoman of the group that produced the study, released Friday during the bar association’s annual convention.

The report, “Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms,” was conducted by the bar association with the help of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Questionnaires were sent to about 1,300 attorneys, both men and women. About 920 of them, or 72 percent, returned responses.

Law firms exclude minority women from golf outings, after-hours drinks and other networking events, the study says. Partners neglect the women of color they are supposed to help mentor.

In some cases, partners and senior lawyers disregard minority women less because of outright bigotry than because they have little in common with them and thus don’t interact well, the study found.

Firms routinely hand minority women inferior assignments such as reviewing documents or writing briefs that provide little opportunity to meet clients, the study says. That means women of color aren’t able to cultivate business relationships and develop the “billable hours” that are the basis of career advancement within a firm.

Among the statistics in the study:

·         Forty-four percent of minority women said they were denied desirable assignments, versus 2 percent of White men.

·         Forty-three percent of minority women said they had limited access to client development opportunities, compared with 3 percent of White men.