On October 18, 2022, Diversity Lab announced that Wilson Sonsini has again achieved Mansfield Certification Plus after participating in the Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certification process for large law firms. Now entering its fifth year, the Mansfield Rule has become the standard by which law firms track and measure that they have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women, lawyers from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, lawyers with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ lawyers for top leadership roles, senior-level lateral hiring, promotions into the equity partnership, and participation in client pitch meetings. This is the fourth consecutive year that Wilson Sonsini has achieved Mansfield Plus Certification, after previously participating in the Mansfield 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 programs. For more information about the Mansfield 5.0 certified firms, please click here.
New for Mansfield 5.0, firms were required to:
- Track their candidate pools in a disaggregated manner, prompting them to measure the impact of the Mansfield Rule by each underrepresented group. Firms must also include an option for Middle Eastern/North African identity, a demographic often overlooked by current self-identification options;
- Consider at least 30 percent underrepresented lawyers for nominations to Chambers USA to increase the external visibility of underrepresented lawyers with clients and in the marketplace more broadly; and
- Consider 30 percent underrepresented individuals when hiring and promoting to C-level or other senior-level professional staff roles.
In addition, law firms like Wilson Sonsini that achieved Mansfield Certification Plus—which indicates that they have not only considered but achieved 30 percent representation of underrepresented lawyers in many of the Mansfield Rule's categories—were asked to certify that diverse attorneys participated in formal pitches and were staffed on matters resulting from those pitch meetings.
The Mansfield Rule, named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to practice law in the United States, was one of the winning ideas from the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon, a pitch competition created by the Diversity Lab in collaboration with Stanford Law School and Bloomberg Law. The Rule aims to boost diversity in leadership by broadening the pool of talent through “consideration goals"—not quotas—for leadership roles. As of 2022, there are over 270 U.S. and Canadian law firms, over 15 UK law firms, and more than 75 legal departments participating in the certification process.
Wilson Sonsini is currently participating in the Mansfield 6.0 program for 2022-2023. Additional information about the ongoing program can be found here.