Advancing Diversity in Leadership with the Mansfield Rule

Munger, Tolles & Olson and 116 other major law firms participating in the Mansfield Rule wrote an open letter on July 2, 2020 to celebrate collective outcomes in the area of diversity and urge other law firms to engage in the collaborative effort.

The Mansfield Rule was inspired by a winning idea at the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon where a Munger Tolles partner was part of the team that developed the idea. The rule measures whether law firms have considered at least 30 percent women, lawyers of color, LGBTQ+ lawyers and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities and senior lateral positions. In short, by expanding the pool of candidates considered for these opportunities, the initiative aims to increase the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership.

The Mansfield Rule has worked. Since signing on as one of the program’s founding firms, Munger Tolles has experienced double-digit growth in the diversity of the firm’s governing bodies with diverse lawyer membership in its management and compensation committees now at 64% and 56%, respectively. Diverse attorneys also represent 42% of the firm’s equity partnership and at least 50% of partner promotions since 2018.

You can read the open letter here. You can also read about Munger Tolles’s initial piloting of the Mansfield program as well as its 2019 Mansfield Certification Plus status.