Bass, Berry & Sims is proud to join with 180+ law firms throughout the world in participating in the Mansfield 6.0 certification process. The Mansfield certification was launched by Diversity Lab five years ago with the goal to diversify leadership in the legal industry. Each year since, Diversity Lab has expanded the certification process to increase the rigor of the parameters measured. The 6.0 version now requires law firms to consider at least 30% historically underrepresented lawyers from all four groups [women lawyers, underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities] when appointing to leadership roles and promoting into the equity partnership, among a dozen other activities that focus on the path to leadership.
According to a press release from Diversity Lab, “The Mansfield certification evolves every year, based on learnings from prior iterations, to drive even greater progress,” stated Kavita Ramakrishnan, Mansfield Rule and Knowledge Sharing Senior Director. “We started small intentionally; we couldn’t go from 0 to 60 in our traditionally risk-averse profession. But firms now expect and even ask for yearly changes to push boundaries.”
For more details about the Mansfield certification process and to read a full list of participating firms, click here.
About Diversity Lab
Diversity Lab is an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in law. Experimental ideas are created through our Hackathons and piloted in collaboration with more than 250top law firms and legal departments across the country. Diversity Lab leverages data, behavioral science, design thinking, and technology to further develop and test new ideas and research, measure the results ,and share the lessons learned. For more details, visit the Diversity Lab website.