Stoel Rives Achieves Mansfield Rule 5.0 Plus Certification

PORTLAND, Ore.—Stoel Rives, an AmLaw 200 firm, is proud to announce it has achieved Mansfield Rule 5.0 Plus Certification, demonstrating the firm has considered at least 30% women, underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, 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. Firms must also consider at least 30% underrepresented talent for C-suite roles. In addition, Stoel Rives’ “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.

“We are proud of the conscientious effort our firm has made to enhance the equity of our workplace, and we are proud of the legal industry’s strides as a whole in this regard as well,” said Stoel Rives’ Firmwide Managing Partner Melissa Jones. “We have worked hard at Stoel with Diversity Lab through our ‘Move the Needle’ effort as well as with our own Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee to achieve this status. However, there is continual room for growth in this area, and we will continue to take the steps we can to proactively move in the right direction.”

Over the yearlong process for achieving Mansfield 5.0 Plus Certification, which ran from July 2021 to July 2022, Diversity Lab collected and analyzed data showcasing the more than 180 committed large law firms’ diversity progress. Highlights achieved by Stoel Rives in this timeframe include having:

• 83% of the lawyers who participated in formal pitches to current or potential clients from historically underrepresented groups, far exceeding the 30% minimum threshold;
• more than 50% of those considered for firm governance committees or roles from historically underrepresented groups, a 6% increase from the 4.0 certification period;
• more than 40% of those considered for promotion to capital partner from historically underrepresented groups; and
• a 56% diverse lateral candidate pool, exceeding the 30% threshold.

The firm also recently announced its commitment to the Mansfield Rule 6.0 Certification process, which runs from July 2022 to July 2023.

“The Mansfield Certification program continues to challenge our firm to ensure our actions align with our stated goals,” said Stoel Rives’ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair Karen O’Connor. “We are honored to continue our commitment to this important endeavor as we strive to be a small part of the bigger aim to see diversity embraced and celebrated within the legal industry at large.”

In addition to ongoing participation in the Mansfield Certification process, Stoel Rives is a founding law firm of Diversity Lab’s Move the Needle Fund. The fund is a five-year model program designed to help law firms measure and reach diversity equity and inclusion goals. More on Stoel Rives commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion can be found at www.stoel.com/diversity.