Portland, Ore. — Stoel Rives LLP is proud to announce that it has achieved Mansfield Rule 4.0 Plus Certification, for which the firm has demonstrated that it considers at least 30% women, underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities and senior lateral positions. “Plus” status indicates that, in addition to meeting or exceeding the baseline requirements, the firm has met the goal of at least 30% diverse lawyer representation in a notable number of its current leadership roles.
A program of Diversity Lab, the Mansfield Rule law firm certification program is designed to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for such opportunities. In addition to attaining Mansfield Rule 4.0 Plus Certification, Stoel Rives has signed on for Mansfield Rule 5.0, which runs from July 2021 to July 2022.
“Stoel Rives’ continued participation in the Mansfield Rule law firm certification program has led to measurable and significant improvements in our efforts to increase the diversity of the leadership of our firm,” Stoel Rives’ Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee Vice-Chair Dexter Pearce said. “While our most notable improvements are with gender diversity, we’re well aware of the need to improve our efforts with racial, ethnic, and gender orientation diversity and are confident that the Mansfield Rule will help drive those efforts.”
Over the course of the year-long certification process, which ran from July 2020 to July 2021 for Mansfield 4.0 Plus, Diversity Lab collected and analyzed data on the 118 participating firms’ diversity progress with respect to the certification requirements. Highlights of Stoel Rives’ outcomes from the 4.0 certification process and overall participation include:
- 75% of our lateral associate candidate pool was diverse, exceeding the 30% threshold by 45%.
- 81% of historically underrepresented lawyers in participating practice groups were considered for participation in formal pitches to current or potential clients, which is a 6% increase from the 3.0 certification period.
- Over 40% of those considered for firm governance committees or roles were from historically underrepresented groups.
In addition to 4.0 certification, in 2020 Stoel Rives became one of the founding law firms of the Move the Needle Fund, a five-year model program led by Diversity Lab to help five law firms reach the diversity and inclusion goals they set for themselves.