Seyfarth Renews Commitment to Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule

(July 8, 2020) -- As part of Seyfarth’s commitment to inclusion and diversity and its focus on continuous improvement in this area, the firm announced today that it has agreed to participate in the 4.0 iteration of the Mansfield Rule, which runs from July 2020 to July 2021.

The Mansfield Rule Certification measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women, attorneys of color, LGBTQ+, and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions.

Named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to the practice of law in the United States, the Mansfield Rule is a variation of the NFL’s “Rooney Rule.” 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.

“We know that under-represented professionals are often those most impacted in times of crisis and economic recession,” said Kori Carew, Seyfarth’s chief inclusion & diversity officer. “For these reasons, Seyfarth has signed up for Mansfield Certification 4.0 and is committed to the shared goal of creating a workplace for all.”

A recognized industry leader in law firm inclusion and diversity, Seyfarth recently launched The Belonging Project, a first-of-its-kind nationwide collaborative initiative to proactively combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on inclusion and diversity in the profession. Notably, the firm launched its own “Rooney Presumption” initiative in 2016 which, inspired by the NFL, has helped improve the hiring of diverse candidates across the firm.

The Mansfield Rule was one of the winning ideas from the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon hosted by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Bloomberg Law and Stanford Law School. Diversity Lab creates and experiments with innovative ways to close the gender gap and boost diversity in law firms and legal departments by leveraging data, behavioral science, and design thinking. To learn more about Mansfield Rule 4.0 click here.