Dive Brief:

• Diversity Lab recently announced that 26 midsize law firms have received an inaugural designation for firms with 25-150 lawyers who have taken steps over 18 months to track, consider, measure, and achieve diversity in leadership.
• The firms who received the Midsize Mansfield Rule Certification will be given the chance to send partners from historically underrepresented groups to client forums to build relationships with Diversity Lab’s in-house counsel collaborators.
• More than 140 law firms across the U.S. and Canada are participating in the Midsize Mansfield Rule initiative, which is taking place amid ongoing efforts by legal departments to work with outside counsel who are diversifying their pool of lawyers.

Dive Insight:

The Mansfield Rule measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30% women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities and senior lateral positions.

Its goal is to increase the number of diverse attorneys in law firm leadership roles through diversifying the pool of attorneys considered for such posts. 

Diversity Lab initially launched the Mansfield Rule certification process with large law firms in 2017, but in late 2020 extended it to midsize firms in the U.S. and Canada.

While attempting to meet the Mansfield Rule benchmarks, participating firms establish clearly defined leadership appointment and/or election processes. They also share best practices with one another. 

Diversity Lab reported that 16 of the 26 Midsize Mansfield Rule firms achieved certification plus status. This means that along with meeting or exceeding the consideration requirements, they also successfully achieved 30% diverse representation in current leadership roles, formal client pitches and staffing on key matters.

"We are incredibly proud of – and grateful to – the firms that stepped up to try this new version and partner with us to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces in the midsize sector,” said Kate Johnston Ryan, Diversity Lab’s chief administrative officer, in a statement. “Despite launching the midsize iteration of the Mansfield Rule in the midst of a global pandemic, these firms were not deterred from taking on challenging systems changes to increase diversity in their firms and the profession.”

In addition to the opportunity to publicize their designation, the firms will be permitted to send newly promoted partners from historically underrepresented groups to Mansfield Rule Client Forums in 2023. Attendees from the certification plus firms get the added benefit of making mock pitches to client forum attendees, such as general counsel and deputy GCs, and receiving feedback from those in-house leaders.

More than 80 legal departments have hosted or contributed to the Diversity Lab client forums, including Fannie Mae, Ford Motor., Gap, Google and Netflix.

Meanwhile, 30 legal departments are participating in a separate Diversity Lab initiative to track the progress their outside firms make in diversifying their legal teams. The legal departments taking part in the Diversity Dividends Collective commit to giving more work to firms that make strides on specified diversity metrics and less to those who do not.

As for the firms participating in the Midsize Mansfield Rule certification initiative, the certification outcomes for the next two cohorts will be announced after they complete the 18-month process.