45+ Legal Departments Join Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition 3.0 to Continue Boosting Diversity in Leadership & Outside Counsel

This newest version of Mansfield, which initially launched in 2017 for law firms, measures whether legal departments have affirmatively considered historically underrepresented lawyers — women lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers — for the legal department’s top roles and outside counsel leadership. The Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition (MRLD) launched in 2019.

MRLD 3.0 is more challenging than previous versions; asking legal departments to consider at least 20% of talent considered for leadership positions are underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and/or LGBTQ+ lawyers (in addition to requiring that at least 50% are historically underrepresented lawyers, including women) for certification. MRLD 3.0 has also expanded to require that legal departments track how high-quality work and development opportunities are allocated as well as create and maintain transparent roadmaps for advancement of current team members. It further drives change within the legal industry by focusing on outside counsel leadership and economic benefactors.

Recently certified MRLD 2.0 participants have joined the MRLD 3.0 cohort.

If your legal department is interested in joining future cohorts, please contact Sajani Granquist (sajani@diversitylab.com). 

How It Works

To achieve certification, legal departments must have candidate pools that are at least 50% historically underrepresented for the following activities:

• Hiring for top legal role(s)
• Hiring and/or internal transitions of lawyers to senior-tier management positions
• Hiring and/or internal transitions of lawyers to mid-tier management positions
• Hiring and/or internal transitions of lawyers to other positions
• Hiring for interns and secondees
• Hiring and/or internal transitions of individuals for high-level professional positions that do not require a J.D. and report to the CLO, GC, or other top legal role(s)
• Allocation of discretionary high-visibility opportunities and/or assignments
• Awarding in-line promotions 
• Engaging outside counsel (with a focus on team leads and financial credit recipients)

Legal departments also must ensure these documents are written, transparent, and accessible within the legal department:

• Job responsibilities for all senior roles
• All processes and criteria for advancement and promotions

The Goal

The overall goal of the Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition is to increase the representation of diverse lawyers in leadership by broadening the pool of women, LGBTQ+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and/or underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers who are considered for leadership and advancement within the legal department and for outside counsel leadership.