A Deeper Dive on Origination Credit

American Lawyer reporter Dylan Jackson recently wrote about how the lack of transparency around origination credit — most firms don’t even have written policies for how it is awarded — harms lawyers from underrepresented groups and drives turnover. If up-and-coming lawyers feel shut out of the “gateway to firm leadership,” as one female attorney put it, they may leave that firm for one with more equitable and transparent credit policies.

It’s great to see more coverage of this key issue that touches the recruiting and retention crisis, as well as firms’ purported efforts to become more inclusive and equitable workplaces. But to really understand the origination credit story, we need to understand how the practice started and why. And in addition to noting who it leaves out, if we can ever hope to see real reform, we also need to think carefully and critically about who the origination credit system benefits. And what it would take for them to change it. For a deep dive on this topic, check out Deb’s piece for De Novo, “Original Sin: Intended to Drive Growth, Origination Credit Now Keeps Firms Stuck in the Past.”