MoFo Achieves “Mansfield Certification Plus” Status for 2021

MoFo was once again named a Mansfield Certified Plus firm by Diversity Lab, recognizing our ongoing commitment to diversity in our hiring and firm leadership roles. The goal of the Mansfield Rule is to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for these opportunities. Certified Plus status indicates that we successfully reached at least 30 percent women, minority, LGBTQ+, and lawyers with disabilities representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm is one of only 23 firms that received Certification Plus since the launch of the Mansfield Rule in 2017.

The concept of the Mansfield Rule was born from a winning pitch at Diversity Lab’s inaugural 2016 Women in Law Hackathon event, hosted by Stanford Law School, in which MoFo’s team took third place. The Mansfield Rule was designed to explore new ways to close the gender gap and increase diversity in law firms. 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.

As a result of our Certified Plus status, MoFo has been granted the opportunity to send a select list of newly promoted diverse partners to Diversity Lab’s virtual and in-person client forums in the spring of 2022. These forums typically include TED-style talks interspersed with small group professional networking breaks and one-on-one pitch meetings with select in-house counsel representing more than 60 legal departments.

MoFo was one of 44 of the country’s leading law firms that joined Diversity Lab’s pilot program of the Mansfield Rule over summer 2017 through mid-2018, which resulted 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.

We are excited to have been a successful participant in the first four initiatives. In 2022, we look forward to once again partnering with Diversity Lab and completing Mansfield Rule 5.0, which will run from July 2021 to July 2022.

For more information about the Mansfield Rule and Diversity Lab, please visit:

Mansfield Rule 4.0 « Diversity Lab.