The Do (More) Good (Better) Newsletter™ #67

The Do (More) Good (Better) Newsletter™ #66

Beyond Advisers Weighs in on the Pause of the of Mansfield Certification with The American Lawyer

Scott Curran, founder and CEO of Beyond Advisers, spoke with The American Lawyer about the impact of Diversity Lab pausing the Mansfield Certification program--a widely adopted voluntary benchmarking framework for law firm hiring and promotion--describing the move as the loss of an important industry benchmark and acknowledging its potential chilling effect on law firm DEI efforts.

'A Big Gut Punch': Law Firm Diversity Leaders React to Mansfield Hitting Pause

“We're seeing this as an opportunity to double down," said one law firm diversity leader. "The work becomes even more important in this environment.”

By Abigail Adcox

The news of Diversity Lab pausing the Mansfield Certification program on Thursday immediately sparked disappointment from numerous law firm diversity leaders and observers, with one calling it the loss of an “industry standard.”

While some suggested it could have a “chilling effect” on law firms’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives without Mansfield Certification holding firms accountable, others insisted they won’t be changing their hiring and promotion practices.

“It was standard-setting for a whole industry that has long had problems with representation at the highest levels,” said Jennifer Martinez, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at HansonBridgett. “Mansfield putting those requirements in black and white, and giving something for firms to measure themselves against, had a huge impact.”

Scott Curran, founder and CEO of Beyond Advisers, echoed Martinez's concerns about pausing the program, saying, “What we're losing is an industry standard, an industry benchmark, a tool for comparing our work, how it's going, where we stand in the industry, etc.”

David Glasgow, executive director of the NYU School of Law’s Meltzer Center for Diversity,Inclusion, and Belonging, added that the Mansfield Certification created “structure around processes like hiring practices, promotion practices, and sort of nudging people within those structures to create accountability.”

Under the Mansfield Certification program, participating law firms were asked to consider underrepresented attorneys in at least 30% of applicant pools for leadership roles, internally publish job descriptions and articulate promotional paths.

A total of more than 360 law firms were committed to the 2024-2025 Mansfield Certification process, including roughly 83% of the Am Law 100, as Law.com previously reported.

One Am Law 100 DEI leader, who could only speak under the condition of anonymity, said it was disappointing and frustrating to see “baseless attacks by the administration continue to cause damage in the industry.”

“Diversity Lab and Mansfield were far from perfect. But they were lawful efforts that sought to ensure that law firms were building thoughtfulness into key processes, allowing for broader pools to be considered (including those who might have been previously excluded or not considered),”the leader said.

A DEI leader from an Am Law 50 firm, who could also only speak under the condition of anonymity, expressed disappointment in how the announcement will continue the narrative “around the dismantling of DEI in Big Law.”

“At its heyday, it was something clients thought meant you cared about DEI, therefore, it really behooved you to care about that certification. That was a lot of the reason firms did it. If you were really early in your diversity journey, there was some utility there,” the leader said, calling the move"a big gut punch."

However, the leader suggested the latest announcement was likely to have a “minimum” impact on firms’ day-to-day operations.

Curran, too, said he didn’t believe firms would privately retreat from their internal DEI initiatives, though he acknowledged the latest announcement does have a chilling effect on the industry.

“This has a chilling effect and may result in a pullback, either in intensity or amount of work, but I don’t believe any firm that cares about the people they serve, their clients, and the people who serve them, their talent will actually stop doing work that Mansfield helps measure,” Curran added.

However, several firm leaders said they saw this moment as an opportunity for their firms to double down on their DEI initiatives.

“Mansfield wouldn't lose its funding if we had more firms that were willing to sort of hold the line,”Martinez said. “I see Mansfield having to step back as a symptom, rather than the root cause of the issue that we're facing in the current times.”

“We're seeing this as an opportunity to double down," Martinez later added. "The work become seven more important in this environment.”

“The industry must fight back, and not retreat, because we've seen that capitulation to this administration not only is worthless, but results in even greater bullying,” the Am Law 100 diversity leader said.

The announcement from Diversity Lab about pausing the Mansfield Certification comes less than two weeks after Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent letters to 42 law firms warning of anticompetitive employment practices, citing their participation in Mansfield.

In Diversity Lab’s announcement, it said the impacts of the FTC letters were “immediate.”

“The FTC’s public statement has triggered more than 30 press articles in a single week, and prompted hundreds of concerned emails from clients,” Diversity Lab founder Caren Ulrich Stacy wrote in a letter to law firms. “We’ve retained a senior antitrust lawyer from a top 50 firm with deepFTC experience and are working with them to educate the agency on Mansfield. But I fear the damage is already done.”

Last spring, 20 law firms received letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requesting extensive information about their employment practices, citing firms’ participation in the Mansfield Certification. However, the EEOC later indicated in a lawsuit over the letters that it wasn’t mandatory for firms to respond.

The Mansfield Certification had also previously been raised during a court battle between four law firms and the Trump administration over executive orders targeting the firms. The government’s lawyer in the cases at the time, deputy associate attorney general Richard Lawson, argued that part of the Mansfield Rule certification process may be unlawful during a court hearing. A position that Diversity Lab pushed back on.

A federal judge last year disputed the Justice Department attorney's characterization of theMansfield program as problematic. "The Mansfield Rule expressly does not establish any hiring quotas or other illegally discriminatory practices, requiring only that participating law firms consider attorneys from diverse backgrounds for certain positions," said U.S. District Judge BerylHowell.

The Trump administration’s scrutiny over the program has led “many clients” to pause their work with Diversity Lab, which in turn has “substantially depleted” their operating funds, Stacy said.

“With this dark cloud hovering, many clients are pausing their work with us. Our operating funds have already been substantially depleted by the need to respond to Executive Orders, DOJ law-firm lawsuits, and EEOC letters to law firms. With little to no near-term revenue to cover expenses, we are concerned about our future,” Stacy wrote.

Glasgow argued the Trump administration’s targeting of law firms put the industry on defense.

“The legal profession has been in the crosshairs of the [Trump] administration, which I think puts it in a defensive crouch more than some other industries,” Glasgow said. “I think there is still plenty of room for lawyers, law firms, other kinds of legal departments, to stand firm and continue to push these issues forward. But there's a kind of inherent risk aversion and conservatism to the legal profession, and I think we’re seeing that play out with the diversity hushing.”

Opposition against law firm diversity practices began to mount after the U.S. Supreme Courtrescinded affirmative action in college admissions in summer 2023, a move that conservativelegal activist Ed Blum saw as an opening—he told Law.com—to pursue litigation against Big Lawdiversity fellowships that Blum viewed as discriminatory.

Ultimately, six firms that received either lawsuits or demand letters agreed to change course and open the fellowships to all applicants, while a seventh dropped its fellowship altogether.

Diversity Lab did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EEOC and FTC did notrespond to a request for comment as well. And the DOJ declined to comment.