Midsize Mansfield Rule
Mansfield Rule for Midsize Law Firms Boosts Diversity in Leadership
In late 2020, Diversity Lab launched a new iteration of the Mansfield Rule developed for firms with 25 to 150 lawyers in the U.S. and Canada. The Mansfield Midsize Certification process, modeled after the initial large firm version, has been fine-tuned and tailored to boost diversity in leadership for firms with fewer lawyers, smaller footprints, and leaner leadership structures. To become Mansfield Midsize Certified, firms are asked to consider at least 30% historically underrepresented lawyers for the following leadership roles, activities, and more.
- Equity partner promotions
- Election or appointment to Managing Partner/Chairperson
- Election or appointment to other high-level firm governance positions, including: Management/Executive Committee and/or Board of Directors, Practice Group Leaders, OfficeHeads, Partner Promotions/Nominations Committee, and Compensation Committee
- Participation in formal client pitches and formal client business meetings
- All lawyer and senior professional staff hiring
- Transparent job responsibilities for governance roles
- Transparent processes for governance appointments/elections
Firms that successfully complete the 18-month certification process are designated as “Mansfield Certified” and have the opportunity to send their newly promoted historically underrepresented partners to Mansfield Client Forums to build relationships with hundreds of influential in-house counsel. To date, more than 80 legal departments have contributed to or hosted Client Forums, including Bloomberg L.P., Fannie Mae, Gap Inc., Google, MassMutual, McDonald’s, Netflix, Pfizer, PNC, Starbucks, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Uber, Paramount, and Walgreen Co.
Mansfield Goal & Background
The goal of Mansfield is to boost the representation of historically underrepresented lawyers in leadership. Launched as a pilot in 2017 with 35+ inaugural U.S. large law firms and now having grown to 300+ U.S., Canada, and UK midsize and large law firms as well as 80+ legal departments, Mansfield has become the standard by which organizations track and measure that they have affirmatively considered women lawyers, underrepresented racial/ethnic lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ lawyers for top leadership roles, senior-level lateral hiring, promotions to partner, participation in client pitch meetings, and more. Additional details on Mansfield’s evolution and outcomes can be found here.
Current Progress
EXCITING NEWS! Diversity Lab is pleased to announce the certification of 70+ midsize firms that participated in the September 2021 – March 2023 cohort. As detailed below, there is currently another midsize certification cohort also in progress that will be announced in Fall 2023.
Recent data analyses – as noted in this Early Adopters Report, Bloomberg article, and American Lawyer article – show Mansfield is working at its intended purpose to diversify leadership. As demonstrated by the large law firm certified leaders’ own words here, their management and diversity experts have worked really hard to push for and achieve these meaningful results. Together, we are moving the needle.
Registration for the next midsize certification cohort closes June 5, 2023. Details can be found here.
Mansfield Midsize Certified Firms: September 2021 – March 2023
Firms that participated in the 2021-2023 certification process and recently achieved certification include:
*indicates Certified Plus status
| Baird Holm* | HWG* | Peckar & Abramson |
| Barton Gilman* | Hartline Barger | Phillips Murrah* |
| Bressler, Amery & Ross | Higgs Fletcher & Mack | Phillips Nizer* |
| Burns White | Hinckley Allen | Plunkett Cooney |
| Cantor Colburn | Hoagland, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas | Prince Lobel |
| CDF Labor Law* | Hurwitz Fine* | Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg* |
| Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass | Irwin Fritchie Urquhart Moore & Daniels* | Roig Lawyers* |
| Collins + Collins* | Jackson Kelly | Sands Anderson |
| Collins Einhorn Farrell* | Klarquist Sparkman* | Saxe Doernberger & Vita |
| Cox, Castle & Nicholson* | Lerner David | Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt* |
| Davis+Gilbert* | Lewis Thomason | Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner |
| Degan, Blanchard & Nash* | Lightfoot, Franklin & White* | Shuttleworth & Ingersoll* |
| Dority & Manning | Marks O’Neill O’Brien Doherty & Kelly | Skarzynski Marick & Black |
| Farella Braun + Martel* | Maslon* | Smith Anderson* |
| Finn Dixon & Herling | McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff | Stark & Stark |
| Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery* | McGinnis Lochridge | Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox |
| Foley Mansfield* | McGivney, Kluger, Clark & Intoccia | Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers* |
| Foster Swift Collins & Smith* | McGlinchey Stafford | Tiber Hudson* |
| Genova Burns* | Meagher & Geer* | Waldon Adelman Castilla Hiestand & Prout |
| Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale | Messner Reeves* | Walsworth* |
| Hahn Loeser & Parks | Miller & Chevalier Chartered | Winget, Spadafora & Schwartzberg |
| Hall Render | Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan* | Wolf Greenfield & Sacks* |
| Hancock Daniel & Johnson* | O’Hagan Meyer | Wyrick Robbins |
| Harness IP | Parker Hudson* |
Mansfield Midsize Participating Firms: March 2022 – July 2023
Firms that are in the midst of participating in the 2022-23 certification process include:
| Aronberg Goldgehn Davis & Garmisa | Hirschler | Meunier Carlin and Curfman LLC |
| Bailey & Glasser LLP | Hooper, Lundy & Bookman | Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP |
| Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP | Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Chartered | Morrison Cohen LLP |
| Bose McKinney & Evans LLP | Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL | Moye White LLP |
| Brooks Kushman P.C. | Keesal, Young & Logan | Much Shelist |
| Brouse McDowell LPA | Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter Co., LPA | Nilan Johnson Lewis PA |
| Brown & Connery, LLP | Keker, Van Nest & Peters | Osha Bergman Watanabe and Burton LLP |
| Brown & James | Keller and Heckman LLP | Patterson + Sheridan LLP |
| Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP | Kelley Jasons McGowan Spinelli Hanna & Reber, LLP | Pearne & Gordon LLP |
| Bush Seyferth PLLC | Kitch Law Firm | Porter Hedges LLP |
| Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry, PC | Klinedinst PC | Porzio, Bromberg & Newman |
| Cook Group Legal, PLLC | Koley Jessen PC, LLO | Robbins Schwartz |
| Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, PC | Levenfeld Pearlstein | Rutan and Tucker, LLP |
| Drew Eckl & Farnham | Liskow & Lewis | Sherman & Howard |
| Erise IP | Loopstra Nixon LLP | Severson & Werson |
| Frantz Ward LLP | Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP | Starnes Davis Florie LLP |
| Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP | Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP | Summit Law Group, PLLC |
| Goldberg Kohn | McAndrews, Held & Malloy | Ulmer & Berne, LLP |
| Gould & Ratner LLP | McBrayer PLLC | Wiggin and Dana LLP |
| Grant and Eisenhofer PA | McDowell Hetherington LLP | Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP |
| Harter Secrest & Emery LLP | McGonigle, PC | ZwillGen PLLC |
| Haug Partners LLP | McGrath North Mullin & Kratz, PC LLO | |
| Hausfeld LLP | McKool Smith | |
| Hawkins Parnell & Young, LLP | McLane Middleton, Professional Association | |
| Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson PS | Merchant & Gould |
If your firm is interested in learning more about Mansfield Midsize, please contact Courtney Munnings at courtney@diversitylab.com.