According to the National Association of Law Placement, 43 percent of all U.S. law firms do not have a single partner of color. Among the 7,846 attorneys practicing at five of the top law firms in the New York metro area, just 26 are Black. Writers Katherine Adu, K. Emily Bond and Patrice Toombs profile five of them in the pages that follow. . .

Pick up any issue of Fortune or Forbes magazine and the cover invariably shows the typical face of corporate America—that of a white male. Although the number of minority attorneys in corporate law, the sector which includes the law departments of corporations as well as law firms themselves, has increased in recent years, the sector remains one of the most ethnically homogeneous, especially in its upper ranks. The National. . .

Each year at its annual “25 Influential Black Women in Business” and “40 Under-Forty Dynamic Black Achievers” award ceremonies, The Network Journal shows a video profile of each of our honorees. In preparing the video, we ask each of them to give us a “favorite saying” that expresses the guiding principle or belief in his or her life. Sometimes, the expressions these honorees choose are known to us. More often than not, however, they. . .