Robins Kaplan LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has achieved Mansfield 3.0 Certification status for 2020. This certification means that the firm met or exceeded the program’s goal of increasing diversity in law firms by considering at least 30 percent women, lawyers with disabilities, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers of color for significant leadership roles and lateral partner and senior associate searches and openings.
The Mansfield Rule was launched in 2017 by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Bloomberg Law and Stanford Law School. It was named for Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to the practice of law in the United States. The initiative was inspired by the NFL’s Rooney Rule, created by the late Dan Rooney in 2003 and now supported by his son, Art Rooney II, President of the Pittsburgh Steelers and a partner at the law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney. The Rooney Rule requires every NFL team to interview at least one person of color for head coach vacancies. In the years following its implementation, the league doubled the number of head coaches of color who were hired. Robins Kaplan adopted a Rooney Rule for lateral associate positions in 2016 and in the following year, the firm increased its hiring of attorneys of color by 30 percent and LGBTQ attorneys by 13 percent.
The firm has already committed to participating in Mansfield 4.0, which adds a new category for a “Certification Plus” designation asking that 30% of the lawyers staffed on matters resulting from formal pitch meetings be from historically underrepresented groups.
You can find more about the results and findings from Mansfield 3.0 here.
