Blank Rome Achieves Mansfield Certification Plus for Mansfield Rule 4.0
Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that our firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status after successfully completing Diversity Lab’s yearlong Mansfield Rule 4.0 program. As a pilot member of the inaugural Mansfield Rule, our firm has received Mansfield Certification for each subsequent iteration of the program and also earned the Mansfield Certification Plus designation for Mansfield Rule 2.0 and Mansfield Rule 3.0. Blank Rome will continue our longstanding partnership with Diversity Lab through our participation in Mansfield Rule 5.0, which will run through July 2022.
“We are extremely proud to have once again achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status and to continue our participation in the next iteration of this critical program,” said Grant S. Palmer, Blank Rome’s Managing Partner and CEO. “The Mansfield Rule directly aligns with our firm’s longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, which dates back to our founding 75 years ago, through strategic recruiting and mentoring, career development and advancement programs, and firm-wide initiatives and client programs.”
“Through our firm’s participation in forward-thinking initiatives, such as Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule, the Houston Bar Association’s Gender Fairness Commitment Statement, the Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region’s Racial and Social Justice Challenge and Fundraising Campaign, the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, our firm is creating meaningful impact in the legal industry and beyond,” added Krystal Studavent Ramsey, Blank Rome’s Director of Diversity & Inclusion. “We will continue to identify, implement, and expand upon such initiatives, and look forward to the advances we will make in the years ahead.”
The Mansfield Certification for this year recognizes 118 leading law firms participating in Mansfield Rule 4.0 that have affirmatively considered at least 30 women, attorneys of color, attorneys with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys for governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions. The goal of the Mansfield Rule is to boost the representation of diverse attorneys in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for these roles and opportunities.
In addition to meeting or exceeding the baseline requirements for certification, Blank Rome and other law firms that achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status have successfully reached at least 30 percent underrepresented lawyer representation in a notable number of their current leadership roles over the past year. Mansfield Rule 5.0 will add a new category for Certification Plus that asks firms to heighten the transparency of their partner compensation criteria and processes by publishing and making them available to all lawyers in the firm. Additionally, participating firms are now required to track their candidate pools in a disaggregated manner, to measure the impact of the Mansfield Rule by each underrepresented group, consider at least 30 percent underrepresented lawyers for nominations to Chambers USA, to increase the external visibility of underrepresented lawyers, and to consider 30 percent underrepresented individuals when hiring and promoting C-level or other senior-level professional staff roles.
As a component of achieving Mansfield Certification, Blank Rome and other Mansfield Rule 4.0 certified firms will be able to send their partners from historically underrepresented groups to the Mansfield Rule Client Forums in 2023. At the client forums, participants will learn from and have an opportunity to build relationships with attorneys from more than 80 in-house legal departments from leading companies across the country.