Hanson Bridgett Commits to Mansfield 6.0 Certification Process
August, 2022 - San Francisco, California
August 18, 2022 (San Francisco, CA) – Hanson Bridgett LLP , an AmLaw 200 law firm serving all of California and beyond, is pleased to announce that the firm has signed on for Diversity Lab 's Mansfield 6.0 certification process. The newest version of the Mansfield certification – aimed at diversifying leadership – is the toughest yet. The parameters have expanded in scope while also increasing in rigor with input from an advisory group of diversity leaders since its launch 5 years ago. In September 2021, the firm announced it achieved Mansfield 4.0 Certification Plus status.
In 2021, Hanson Bridgett announced its commitment to continue to pursue Mansfield Certification year-after-year and has already begun taking steps toward pursuing the next iteration of the accreditation, the Mansfield 5.0 Certification . Meeting criteria for the 5.0 Rule will require participating firms to meet newly raised standards to continue to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. Results for this certification will not be released until later in 2022.
And now, the 6.0 version requires law firms to consider at least 30% historically underrepresented lawyers from all four groups when appointing to leadership roles and promoting into the equity partnership, among a dozen other activities that focus on the path to leadership. Firms must also consider 30% underrepresented talent for C-suite roles. Firms are asked to share lessons learned with each other through monthly knowledge sharing forums. They must create and publish job descriptions for leadership roles. They must continue to meet routine check-in, data-collection, and reporting milestones. And to ensure Mansfield’s long-term results, there is an increasingly difficult “Certification Plus” category that evaluates whether firms have achieved diversity in leadership, not just considered it. To attain this higher level of certification, firms’ advancement and compensation processes must now be transparent internally.
"With women serving as COO/CFO and Chief HR Officer, as well as Managing Partner and CDEIO, with LGBTQ+ professionals serving as General Counsel and Chief Marketing Officer, and with a Management Committee comprised of 50/50 women and men, our current leadership is the most diverse in Hanson Bridgett’s history," said Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Jennifer Martinez . "Our continued commitment to the Mansfield Certification initiative keeps us accountable as we seek to include still more historically underrepresented lawyers at the firm and among our leadership ranks."
When Diversity Lab first launched the pilot certification with 40+ large firms in 2017, the primary requirement was to consider at least 30% women lawyers and underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers for leadership roles. Versions 2.0 through 5.0 were steadily broadened each year to include LGBTQ+ lawyers and lawyers with disabilities as well as critical pipeline activities (e.g., pitch teams, senior-level lateral hiring), transparent leadership role descriptions, and more. Research shows that starting small, testing, and iterating are key to agile and successful change management efforts.
