This figure comes from the latest census by the Legal Alliance for Racial Equity, slated for release on Thursday (21)
The proportion of Black professionals at Brazil’s largest law firms has increased over the past eight years. From a virtually nonexistent share in 2018, it rose to 11.3% in 2021 and reached 13.4% in 2025, according to data from the latest census by the Legal Alliance for Racial Equity, to be released today.
The Alliance currently brings together 14 law firms. The census, however, was conducted at 10 of them, covering a total of 7,486 employees in legal and administrative departments. Because participation is voluntary, about 54% of workers responded to the survey. The results showed progress, but there is still room for improvement, according to specialists.
Created in 2017, the Alliance brings together firms that have already implemented inclusion and retention programs focused on racial diversity. The initiatives include strategies to increase the hiring of Black candidates, offer training programs, and improve the retention and promotion of professionals.
This year, the Alliance is being chaired by a Black lawyer for the first time. Robson de Oliveira, a partner at Demarest Advogados, says that after an initial phase of awareness-raising and a focus on hiring, the plan for the coming years is to find ways to increase the retention of Black talent at law firms.
“The survey is a diagnosis that helped us realize that talent retention is one of the biggest bottlenecks for expanding diversity. Although some turnover is normal and even desirable, as firms train professionals, they begin to draw more attention from the market,” he says.
Among the training activities, the law firms that are part of the Alliance offer, for example, English courses and mentoring, helping prepare résumés that highlight experience and offering guidance on networking, among other topics. “Many times, the professionals served are the first generation with a college degree, so they don’t have family guidance on these things,” says Robson de Oliveira.
Barbara Rosenberg, a partner at BMA and an Alliance adviser, adds that the Quota Law (Law 12711 of 2012) helped Black students gain the opportunity to stand out academically, but the next step was still missing. “The greatest difficulty was getting these excellent students, from excellent universities, to Faria Lima,” she says.
And when Black students and recent graduates arrive at large law firms, they bring skills and abilities that set them apart from other candidates, according to Renata Scuba, of Mattos Filho. “Behavioral skills, commitment, resilience, and a drive that is hard to see in those who already come from a background full of opportunities,” she says.
According to her, this is also why it is so important to ensure racial literacy within law firms, alongside professional training, so that leaders in decision-making positions recognize these differentiators. Robson de Oliveira agrees: “We need to accelerate change from the top down.”
As for the next challenges, the lawyer adds, the greatest will be not losing the ground already gained—in addition to advancing in hiring and retaining professionals. The presence of Black professionals in director-level positions, for example, rose from 5.6% to 7.8% between the previous census and this one.
Luiza Sato, a partner at TozziniFreire, points out that the Alliance prioritizes an intersectional approach to addressing these difficulties. “When we cross-check the data, Black women in leadership positions are practically nonexistent,” she says.
Lawyer Isadora Almeida, who joined Demarest in 2019, three years after graduating from PUC, to work in capital markets, is one of the beneficiaries of the Alliance’s initiatives. When she became a senior lawyer in 2023, she expressed a desire to take an international course. She was accepted by several universities with scholarships and chose the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a 60% scholarship. The remainder, as well as housing and tuition expenses, was paid by Demarest through its internal D Raízes program.
Even in a Master of Laws (LLM) program—an advanced graduate law degree aimed at the international community, with students from more than 40 nationalities—Isadora studied with only three other Black students. “It was just three African students and me in my year,” she says. After the course, she also spent a year working at a U.S. firm as an international lawyer.
She says the opportunity was very important for her career. “The LLM is already a very good course for opening minds, very strong in networking and preparation for cross-border work. For those who work with transnational law, it is a more important experience than any academic one; it opens opportunities for attracting clients,” she explains. She currently sits on the board of the D Raízes program.
According to Robson de Oliveira, the Legal Alliance for Racial Equity’s current focus is on maintaining awareness-raising events. Earlier this month, the initiative brought two judges to speak to lawyers at the firms about the application of the National Council of Justice’s (CNJ) Racial Protocol. Topics such as algorithmic discrimination and racial biases in artificial intelligence have already been addressed. The next event, with no theme defined yet, is expected to take place in late June.
The firms that took part in the survey were BMA, Demarest, Lefosse, Lobo de Rizzo, Mattos Filho, Pinheiro Neto, Stocche Forbes, TozziniFreire, Trench Rossi Watanabe, and Veirano.
*By Luiza Calegari — São Paulo
Source: Valor International
https://valorinternational.globo.com/