MoFo was honored to be a part of the inaugural class of major law firms recognized by Diversity Lab as having achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status in 2018. We are even more pleased to have been certified again in 2019 following Mansfield Rule 2.0. Certified Plus status indicates that we successfully reached at least 30 percent women, minority, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm was one of only 25 that received Certification Plus for two consecutive years.
As a result of our Certified Plus status, MoFo will also have the opportunity to send a select list of diverse partners to Diversity Lab’s client forums in Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and New York this fall. Attendees of the two-day conference will hear from in-house counsel on topics such as why clients hire outside counsel, what makes for a good pitch, and how to get additional work from a client and effectively cross-sell colleagues.
The first day of the conference will feature TED-style talks interspersed with small-group, professional networking breaks. Day two, reserved for lawyers from Certified Plus firms, will offer our diverse lawyers the opportunity to participate in pitch meetings with select in-house counsel. Around 20 in-house legal departments are expected to be present at each forum event. In 2018, more than 70 legal departments signed on to participate, including Salesforce, Target, SurveyMonkey, GAP, 3M, and Google.
Following the forums, attendees will be provided with valuable feedback from their client pitch sessions on speaking style, effectiveness in describing their capabilities, and knowledge of their firm’s commitment to diversity, as well as practical tips for improving their pitch skills.
The concept of the Mansfield Rule was born from a winning pitch at Diversity Lab’s inaugural Women in Law Hackathon held in 2016, in which MoFo’s team took third place. The rule was named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to practice law in the United States, and is a modified version of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” requiring all NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach positions.
MoFo was one of 44 of the country’s leading law firms that joined Diversity Lab’s pilot program of the Mansfield Rule in 2017, resulting in Certified Plus status in 2018. Version 2.0 of the program, which ran from July 2018 to July 2019, saw an increase to 65 participating firms and expanded the rule to include LGBTQ+ lawyers in addition to women and lawyers of color.
MoFo will be participating in Mansfield 3.0, which will include lawyers with disabilities in the populations considered.
Read more about the results of Mansfield 2.0 from Diversity Lab here.