Blank Rome Joins Mansfield Rule 5.0, Continuing Longstanding Partnership with Diversity Lab
Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that our firm has signed on to participate in Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule 5.0 certification process, which measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women, attorneys of color, attorneys with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys for governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions. Blank Rome was a pilot member of the inaugural Mansfield Rule 1.0 in June 2017, and has recommitted to each subsequent iteration as well as achieved Mansfield Certification Plus status the last two years for successfully reaching at least 30 percent diverse lawyer representation in a number of leadership roles and committees.
“We are honored to continue partnering with Diversity Lab on this vital initiative, as we must remain committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in leadership in the legal industry and beyond,” said Grant S. Palmer, Managing Partner and CEO at Blank Rome. “From the pilot program to the latest Mansfield Rule 5.0 initiative, Blank Rome has been actively dedicated to advancing diversity and inclusion inside and outside of our firm, and to developing numerous programs and initiatives to maintain and inspire progress despite the challenges of the past year."
“Blank Rome’s longstanding partnership with Diversity Lab on the Mansfield Rule certification process is a testament to our firm’s strong commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion among our colleagues, clients, and communities,” added Krystal Studavent Ramsey, Director of Diversity & Inclusion. “We are more aware than ever that meaningful progress in boosting diversity across leadership is necessary to the growth of our industry as well as building a more collaborative and inclusive work environment for all our attorneys and professionals.”
Now entering its fifth year, the Mansfield Rule has become the standard by which law firms track and measure their efforts to boost diversity at their leadership levels. Mansfield Rule 5.0, which will run from July 15, 2021 to July 14, 2022, will include more than 160 participating law firms—47 of which are new to the program—and is expanding to include a new pilot program in the UK with more than 10 leading law firms. It will also add a new category for the Certification Plus designation 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 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.
Inspired by the NFL’s Rooney Rule, 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. According to Diversity Lab, the program’s elements and operations are grounded in behavioral science research, including the 30 percent requirement, which researchers have found is the critical mass necessary to disrupt biases.