Almost 20% minority relationship partners for Walmart’s law firms

A piece in the National Law Journal (Sept. 5, 2005 at pg. 11) cited remarks by the GC of Walmart, Thomas Mars. Mars said that 82 of the relationship partners at the company’s top 100 firms are white men. Doesn’t that mean that 18 percent of the retailer’s top 100 firms are minorities (either not men or not white)?

Further, the 82 firms “get $142 million of the $200 million that Wal-Mart spends each year on outside counsel” so some undisclosed portion of $58 million goes to the firms with minority relationship partners. Feels like the minority glass is far from empty.

And, I wonder, isn’t it more important to have a plenitude of minority lawyers and paralegals working on the company’s legal matters, without regard to the protected status of the relationship partner?