Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP is one of only about two dozen U.S. law firms to receive an important new certification demonstrating its commitment to diversity. Diversity Lab announced today that MMM has achieved Mansfield Certification “Plus” status. This indicates the firm has successfully reached at least 30 percent women and minority lawyer representation in a notable number of leadership roles and committees. Only 27 firms nationwide achieved the criteria.

The firm achieved the basic Mansfield Certification as well, which measures whether firms affirmatively consider at least 30 percent women and attorneys of color for leadership and governance roles. Only 41 firms nationwide achieved the distinction.

The certifications are based on the Mansfield Rule; the goal of the rule is to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for opportunities. The announcement of MMM’s two successful certifications came at the end of an inaugural one-year pilot program.

“The Mansfield Certification gave us a way to measure and evaluate our existing efforts to improve diversity,” said Louise Wells, the firm’s managing partner. “One of our clients brought the program to us last summer because they know that diversity is a priority for us. We are thrilled to achieve Certification Plus because it shows our efforts are working and gives us concrete ways to continue to improve.”

MMM has already signed on to pursue the newest iteration of the rule – called Mansfield 2.0 – which measures the representations of LGBTQ+ lawyers, in addition to women and minorities. The Mansfield 2.0 certification will also measure whether diverse attorneys are considered for roles in client pitch meetings. In addition, it asks participating law firms to make appointment and election processes transparent to all their lawyers. Only 65 law firms are applying for the advanced designation. The certification process runs from July 2018 to July 2019.

The Mansfield Rule was one of the winning ideas from the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon, hosted by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Bloomberg Law and Stanford Law School. It was inspired by the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires every NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate for head coach vacancies.