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Posted: Monday, August 7th, 2006 5:13 AM HST

Report: Minority women lawyers increasingly abandoning law firms

By Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ A new study by the American Bar Association says discrimination on the job is prompting growing numbers of minority women to abandon the nation's biggest law firms. The study was released during the bar association's annual convention this past week. The report titled ``Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms'' comes at a time when the rising prominence of powerful minority women -- such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- would lead one to imagine discrimination is on the decline. Instead, the study shows firms routinely hand minority women inferior assignments that provide little opportunity for meeting and cultivating clients. And nearly two-thirds of the women of color in the study said they were excluded from informal and formal networking opportunities compared to four percent of white men (Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved)