The Mansfield Rule Helps Lawyers Tackle Diversity
/Two years after the rule’s pilot, the legal industry shows positive changes
It’s only been two years since the first incarnation of the Mansfield Rule was adopted. But already, the legal industry is showing signs of progress.
Named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to the American bar in 1869, the Mansfield Rule was created by Diversity Lab to help even the playing field for minorities and women in the law profession. It requires law firms to consider at least 30 percent women and minority lawyers for significant leadership roles, lateral openings, and equity partner promotions.
Since then, two new versions of the rule—Mansfield 2.0 and Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition—have expanded its diversity efforts to include legal departments, LGBQT+ attorneys, and lawyers with disabilities. Diversity Lab is an incubator focused on diversity and inclusion issues in the legal industry.
Law remains one of the least diverse professions in the nation
The Mansfield rules are a change that many say can’t be adopted fast enough in the legal industry, which has long struggled to change its status as one of the least diverse professions in the nation. But despite more than two decades of diversity efforts, the statistics have barely budged.
Minorities are scarcest at the top: while minority lawyers now comprise a record 16 percent of law firms, only 9 percent of law partners are people of color, according to research by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). But even the overall progress appears bleak when you dig deeper into the numbers: In the seven years between 2009 and 2016, the percentage of minority lawyers only inched upward by two percent.
Female attorneys only fare slightly better. The American Bar Association (ABA) reports that women comprised 30 percent of the legal profession in 2007, and by 2017 that number had only increased by 5 percent. Women make up 45 percent of law firm associates, but only represent 20 percent of partners and 18 percent of equity partners.
The Mansfield Rule is born
The Mansfield Rule is based on the National Football League’s (NFL) Rooney Rule, created by the late Dan Rooney in 2003 and now supported by his son, Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Rooney Rule doubled the number of minority head coaches in the NFL by requiring every team to interview at least one minority candidate for those vacancies. The rule was eventually expanded to include general manager positions and female candidates.
Today, a diverse candidate is 20 percent more likely to fill a head coaching role in the NFL than before the Rooney Rule was adopted. The rule stands as an inspiring example of a “soft” affirmative action policy, or one that is designed to change the composition of the candidate pool instead of the criteria used in the hiring process.
The Mansfield Rule leverages the lessons of the NFL’s experiences to create a data-driven model to improve diversity ratios at the top ranks of the legal industry. Its first version goes a step further than Rooney by requiring 30 percent minority and female candidates instead of just one. And it measures whether firms are actively considering diverse candidates for at least 30 percent of open leadership and governance roles, including managing partner, chairperson, practice group leader, compensation committee, policy committee, and equity partner.
The Mansfield Rule grew out of a Women In Law Hackathon held by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Stanford Law School and Bloomberg Law in 2016. For six months, 54 senior-level partners from law firms across the U.S. worked in virtual teams of six—supported by two expert advisors and Stanford law students—to create new, scalable inclusion initiatives.
While the Mansfield Rule drew top honors in the Shark Tank-style pitch that ended the hackathon, four other ideas presented that day are also being developed by Diversity Lab, including a technology-driven solution that provides support to women associates as they advance into partnership, and a data-based compensation tool that can help firms overcome unconscious bias and close the pay gap between genders.
The inaugural program reports promising outcomes
During its pilot, the Mansfield Rule was adopted by 44 law firms and supported by more than 70 legal departments, including Google, 3M, American Express, and Target. After 12 months, 41 firms that could prove they adhered to the guidelines became Mansfield Rule-certified.
The distinction awarded more than bragging rights: candidates hired or promoted through the process were invited to a two-day client forum attended by 55 corporate in-house general counsels ready to network, mentor, and potentially offer lucrative new business.
To meet the mandates of the Mansfield Rule, the first step for participating law firms was creating a baseline metric by which they could assess and analyze their talent pipelines. That included documentation and tracking norms that could measure the representation of diverse lawyers considered for and advanced into leadership roles, and identify areas for improvement.
The results of the Mansfield Rule’s inaugural campaign were encouraging:
100 percent of the 41 certified firms now track diversity in their pool of candidates for leadership and governance roles. Previously, only 30 percent of the 44 firms that participated in the program tracked diversity for leadership and governance roles.
Of the firms that had previously tracked diversity in job candidates, 73 percent increased the number of minorities and women considered for leadership roles after implementing the Mansfield Rule.
95 percent of participating firms reported an increase in formal discussions among firm leaders about broadening the pool of diverse candidates for appointments to leadership positions and lateral hiring.
83 percent reported an increase in formal discussions about broadening the pool for partnership promotions.
Many participants have made reporting on the diversity of their leadership, hiring, and promotions pipelines a regular agenda item for management committee meetings.
Nearly 75 percent of participating firms didn’t have written job descriptions for leadership roles in place; within six months, more than half had added them to create transparency in the hiring process.
New rules add inclusion of LGBTQ+, disabled attorneys, and target legal departments
Bolstered by the Mansfield Rule’s successful launch, Diversity Lab rolled out an upgraded version dubbed Mansfield 2.0 in July 2018. Sixty-five firms signed on to the year-long, expanded program, which includes LGBTQ+ attorneys in addition to minorities and women. It also added requirements for firms to make their election process transparent and to measure which lawyers are being considered for client pitches.
Although Mansfield 2.0’s pilot ends this summer, at the six-month mark, 94 percent of participating firms said their candidate pool for pitch teams was more diverse and 76 percent said the same for leadership and governance roles.
In April, Diversity Lab also took aim at legal departments with the launch of “Mansfield Rule: Legal Department Edition.” It significantly steps up the diversity demands of previous rules by requiring in-house legal teams to consider at least 50 percent women, minority lawyers, LGBTQ+ attorneys, and lawyers with disabilities as applicants for key leadership roles. Participating legal departments are also asked to consider at least 50 percent diverse lawyers for outside counsel hires for new or expanded work.
Earlier this year, 170 general counsels also emphasized their commitment to diversity in the legal profession with an open letter to law firms: “Improve Diversity or Lose our Business.” But diversity within the top ranks of corporate legal departments is equally problematic: The Washington Post reports that only 11 percent of general counsels at Fortune 500 companies are black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American.
“We’re really good at pointing the finger at our outside law firms and telling them they’re not doing enough on diversity and inclusion and holding their feet to the fire,” MassMutual general counsel Michael O’Connor told Corporate Counsel. MassMutual is participating in the new Mansfield pilot.
“This really gives in-house lawyers an opportunity to show that we’re actually walking the talk and we’re subjecting ourselves to the same or even higher standards than we are with our outside law firms.”
Other participants in Mansfield’s legal edition include PayPal, thredUP, U.S. Bank, and Symantec Corp.
Improving diversity within the law profession is not just the right thing to do; clients have made it clear that a competitive advantage awaits firms that are able to improve diversity at all levels within their ranks.
And adopting initiatives like the Mansfield Rule helps law firms and legal departments shatter the legal industry’s monolithic reputation and put it on the path toward inclusivity.
Carrington Legal Search is committed to providing a diverse pool of candidates for each of our searches and we proactively maintain a pipeline of diverse candidates. Want to insure that you are meeting your diversity goals? Let Carrington do the work for you. To make our nationwide network work for you, get in touch at 512-627-7467 or email carrie@carringtonlegal.com.