Fish & Richardson issued the following announcement on Aug. 21.
Fish & Richardson is one of 26 elite “trailblazing” U.S. firms to have earned the highest designation of Mansfield 1.0 Certified Plus from Diversity Lab for having successfully reached at least 30 percent women and minority lawyer representation in a notable number of their current leadership roles and committees. The Mansfield Rule Certification measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women and attorneys of color for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions and senior leadership positions.
“We are thrilled to receive the Mansfield Rule Certification Plus designation from Diversity Lab and are confident we will continue to see a measurable increase in diverse lawyers in law firm leadership,” said Kristine McKinney, Chief Legal Talent & Inclusion Officer at Fish & Richardson. “At Fish, we value diversity because we know that diverse teams increase the quality of legal services we provide to our clients, and builds upon our position as a top intellectual property law firm. By increasing the diversity of our pipeline, we are making significant progress towards diversifying the next generation of law firm leaders.”
To achieve the Mansfield Rule objectives, participating law firms had to first establish a baseline metric by which they could assess and analyze their talent pipelines. As part of the rigorous Mansfield Rule Certification process, the firms were expected to create and adopt documentation and tracking norms to measure their progress and identify areas for improvement. Fish will also be one of 65 firms participating in Mansfield 2.0, which will include LGBTQ+ lawyers as well as women and attorneys of color as part of the diverse candidate pool. Mansfield 2.0 also will measure consideration for roles in client pitch meetings and will ask participating law firms to make appointment and election processes transparent for all lawyers in their firms.
Diversity Lab creates and experiments with innovative ways to close the gender gap and boost diversity in law firms and legal departments by leveraging data, behavioral science and design thinking. The Lab’s first pilot initiative, the OnRamp Fellowship, is now the largest global re-entry platform matching experienced women returning to the workforce after a hiatus with more than 35 law firms, legal departments and banks for paid Fellowships in the U.S., Australia, the UK and Canada. Due to the overwhelming success of Diversity Lab’s 2016 Women in Law Hackathon, a series of “Diversity in Law Hackathons” are happening in 2018 in partnership with Bloomberg Law, Harvard Law School, Northwestern Law School and University of California at Hastings School of Law. Fish & Richardson has been a participant in both Hackathons.
Original source can be found here.