160+ U.S., Canadian & UK Law Firms Announced as Participating in 2021-2022 Certification Process

Mansfield Rule Participation Grows by 90% with 45+ New Firms & Expansion into UK

 

SAN FRANCISCO, June 28, 2021 – Diversity Lab announced today that more than 160 large law firms, including 49 new firms, in the United States and Canada are participating in the Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certification process launching July 15, 2021. This year’s expansion also includes a new pilot in the UK with more than 10 leading law firms.

The goal of the Mansfield Rule is to boost the representation of historically underrepresented lawyers in law firm leadership. Now entering its fifth year, the Mansfield Rule has become the standard by which law firms track and measure that they have affirmatively considered at least thirty percent women, lawyers from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, lawyers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ lawyers for top leadership roles, senior-level lateral hiring, promotions into the equity partnership, and participation in client pitch meetings.

Recent data shows that the Mansfield Rule is succeeding at its goal. The “early adopter” firms piloting the Mansfield Rule since its 2017 inception have increased the racial and ethnic diversity of their management committees by 30 times the rate of non-Mansfield Rule firms.

Similar to previous years, this iteration of the Mansfield Rule includes new challenges to continuously push the boundaries necessary to boost diversity in law firm leadership. New for Mansfield 5.0, firms are required to:

• Track their candidate pools in a disaggregated manner, prompting them to measure the impact of the Mansfield Rule by each underrepresented group. Firms must also include an option for Middle Eastern/North African identity, a demographic often overlooked by current self-identification options;
• Consider at least 30% underrepresented lawyers for nominations to Chambers USA to increase the external visibility of underrepresented lawyers with clients and in the marketplace more broadly; and
• Consider 30% underrepresented individuals when hiring and promoting C-level or other senior-level professional staff roles.

In addition, law firms pursuing Mansfield Certification Plus – which indicates that they have not only considered, but achieved thirty percent representation of underrepresented lawyers in many of the Mansfield Rule’s categories – will be asked to heighten the transparency of their partner compensation criteria and processes by publishing and making them available to all lawyers in the firm. Natalia Marulanda, Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule Manager, noted, “Increasing accountability and transparency have always been major objectives of the Mansfield Rule, and we’re excited to be working with firms to shed more light on partner compensation practices, the holy grail of inclusion and equity.”

Diversity Lab is also embarking on its first expansion outside of North America with the launch of the Mansfield Rule UK with more than 10 leading UK law firms. Marulanda commented that “we have received many requests over the last few years to launch a UK version of the Mansfield Rule, so we were thrilled to work with an advisory group of leading talent experts at these firms to formulate a similar version. We now have the opportunity to test these same principles, which have been incredibly effective in the U.S. and Canada, in a new context with this group of trailblazing UK firms.”

With the addition of the Mansfield Rule UK, Diversity Lab now facilitates four versions of the Mansfield Rule Certification, including one for legal departments and another for midsize law firms, both of which will launch new cohorts in Fall 2021.

All firms that meet or exceed the required Mansfield Rule Certification parameters, which are measured twice yearly through a data collection process and structured check-in meetings, are provided with an opportunity to send their newly promoted underrepresented partners to Client Forums to meet and learn from hundreds of influential legal department leaders.

At the Spring 2021 Mansfield Rule Client Forums, 600+ newly promoted diverse partners met and mingled with more than 240 legal department leaders and potential clients from 85 companies during the virtual events. As an added benefit for the Certified “Plus” firms, Diversity Lab organized 738 pitch sessions for the diverse partners with in-house leaders from legal departments such as Netflix, Voya Financial, BASF, McDonalds, Chime, First National Bank, PayPal, American Express, HPE, Micron, Accenture, Ford Motor Company, MassMutual, PNC, Uber, Eaton, HP Inc., and Verizon. As a result of the Forums, the diverse partners gain new business and origination credit – accelerating their path to equity partner and leadership.

UK 1.0 Pilot Firms

Allen & Overy	Bird & Bird	Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Clifford Chance	Clyde & Co	Cooley
Dechert	DLA Piper	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Hogan Lovells	Kennedys	Mayer Brown International
Reed Smith	Taylor Wessing

U.S. & Canada 5.0 Participating Firms  (*New Firms)

Adams and Reese*	Akerman	Akin Gump Hauer & Feld
Allen & Overy	Alston & Bird*	Archer & Greiner
Arent Fox	Arnold & Porter	Baker Botts
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz	BakerHostetler*	Baker McKenzie
Ballard Spahr	Barnes & Thornburg*	Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff*
Beveridge & Diamond	Blank Rome	Boies Schiller Flexner
Bricker & Eckler	Brown Rudnick	Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner	Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney	Butler Snow*
Calfee, Halter & Griswold*	Chapman and Cutler	Clark Hill*
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton*	Clifford Chance US	Clyde & Co US
Connell Foley*	Cooley	Covington & Burling
Cozen O’Connor	Crowell & Moring	Davis Polk*
Davis Wright Tremaine	Day Pitney	Debevoise & Plimpton*
Dechert	Dentons	Dentons Canada
Dinsmore & Shohl	DLA Piper	Dorsey & Whitney
Duane Morris	Dykema*	Epstein Becker & Green*
Eversheds Sutherland	Faegre Drinker	Fasken
Fenwick & West	Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner	Fish & Richardson
Fisher Phillips	Foley Hoag	Foley & Lardner*
Fox Rothschild*	Fredrikson & Byron	Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US
Frost Brown Todd	Goodwin Procter	Goulston & Storrs
Greenberg Traurig	Greenspoon Marder*	Hanson Bridgett
Haynes and Boone	Hinshaw & Culbertson*	Hogan Lovells US
Holland & Hart	Holland & Knight	Honigman*
Hunton Andrews Kurth	Husch Blackwell	Ice Miller
Jackson Lewis	Jackson Walker*	Jenner & Block
K&L Gates	Katten Muchin Rosenman	Kaufman Dolowich and Voluck
Kean Miller	Kennedys*	Kramer Levin
Lane Powell	Latham & Watkins	Lathrop GPM*
Lewis Brisbois*	Lewis Roca*	Littler Mendelson
Locke Lord	Loeb & Loeb*	Lowenstein Sandler
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips*	Mayer Brown	McDermott Will & Emery
McGuireWoods	MG+M Law Firm	Miller Canfield
Miller Nash	Morgan, Lewis & Bockius	Morris, Manning & Martin
Morrison & Foerster	Munger, Tolles & Olson	Neal Gerber Eisenberg
Nexsen Pruet*	Nixon Peabody	Norton Rose Fulbright
Nutter	O’Melveny & Myers	Ogletree Deakins*
Orrick	Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler	Paul Hastings
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison*	Perkins Coie	Phelps Dunbar*
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman	Polsinelli	Potomac Law Group*
Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch	Porter Wright Morris & Arthur	Quarles & Brady*
Reed Smith	Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren*	Robins Kaplan
Robinson Bradshaw*	Robinson & Cole	Roetzel & Andress*
Sandberg Phoenix & Von Gontard*	Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr	Schiff Hardin
Seyfarth Shaw	Shearman & Sterling	Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton
Shipman & Goodwin	Shook, Hardy & Bacon*	Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Squire Patton Boggs*	Steptoe & Johnson PLLC*	Stinson
Stoel Rives	Stoll Keenon Ogden	Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young
Sullivan & Cromwell*	Sullivan & Worcester*	Taft Law
Thompson Coburn	Thompson Hine	Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders
Tucker Ellis	Varnum*	Venable*
Vinson & Elkins	Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease	Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis*
Weil, Gotshal & Manges*	White & Case	Williams & Connolly
Willkie Farr & Gallagher*	WilmerHale	Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker*
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	Winston & Strawn	Womble Bond Dickinson (US)
		Wood Smith Henning & Berman*

 

For additional details on the Mansfield Rule, please contact Kavita Ramakrishnan at kavita@diversitylab.com. 

Diversity Lab is the owner of the service mark rights for MANSFIELD RULE and MANSFIELD RULE CERTIFIED, and Diversity Lab is the sole entity that can use and authorize other parties to use these service marks in connection with diversity programs. These terms should not be used unless a law firm or other entity is registered and participating in the Mansfield Rule certification process administered by Diversity Lab.