Arnold & Porter Receives Mansfield Plus Certification for Promoting Diversity in Leadership Pipelines

Arnold & Porter is one of 41 law firms that recently received Mansfield Certification, which measures how law firms affirmatively consider women and minority lawyers for significant leadership roles. To be eligible for the certification, the firm also participated in an inaugural one-year Mansfield Rule pilot. Notably, Arnold & Porter is one of 27 firms that achieved the Mansfield Certification Plus certification. This status recognizes firms that have at least 30 percent of women or diverse lawyers in leading roles.

The Mansfield Rule, named for the first woman admitted to the practice of law in the United States, is modeled after the NFL's Rooney Rule, which requires all NFL teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach and general manager vacancies. After the Rooney Rule's implementation in 2003, the number of minorities in those roles doubled. The Mansfield Rule aims to similarly diversify the legal space. For participating firms, the Mansfield Rule requires that women and minority attorneys make up 30 percent of the candidate pool for leadership positions, equity partner promotions and certain lateral hires.

The Mansfield Rule stems from the 2016 Women In Law Hackathon, a competition hosted by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Bloomberg Law and Stanford Law School intended to generate ideas for boosting "the retention and advancement of experienced women in law firms."

Diversity and inclusion are core values at Arnold & Porter. The firm is committed to cultivating an inclusive environment where everyone is supported and accorded dignity and respect. The firm has recently been named to Working Mother's 'Best Law Firms for Women' List, Yale Law Women's Top 10 Female Friendly Firms, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality.