FaegreBD Pilots NFL-Style "Mansfield Rule" to Boost Diversity in Leadership Ranks

Faegre Baker Daniels is one of 30 leading law firms partnering with Diversity Lab to pilot the Mansfield Rule, one of the winning ideas from the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon—a Shark Tank-style pitch competition.

Inspired by the NFL’s Rooney Rule—which was named for former Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, and requires every NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach vacancies—the Mansfield Rule was named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to the practice of law in the United States. It measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered women and attorneys of color—at least 30 percent of the candidate pool—for qualifying leadership and governance roles.

FaegreBD’s vice chair and chief operating partner Gina Kastel, who participated in the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon said, “Faegre Baker Daniels is committed to diversity and inclusion throughout the firm, including among our leadership. We are adopting the Mansfield Rule to carry forward the energy generated from the 2016 Hackathon and help translate it into real results for our firm and the legal profession.”

Law firms that successfully pilot the Mansfield Rule over the next year will be designated “Mansfield Certified” and will have the opportunity to send recently promoted diverse partners to a two-day Client Forum in late 2018 to build relationships with and learn from influential in-house counsel.