PHILADELPHIA, October 18, 2022 — The Diversity Lab announced today that Cozen O’Connor has achieved Mansfield 5.0 Certification. Cozen O'Connor has also signed on for the Diversity Lab’s Mansfield 6.0 Certification process for 2022-2023.
The Mansfield Rule Certification measures whether participating law firms have considered 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. Requirements have been slowly broadened each year. For Mansfield 5.0, firms must also have successfully reached at least 30% underrepresented lawyer representation in a notable number of their current leadership roles.
The Mansfield Rule is one of the winning ideas from the 2016 Women in Law Hackathon hosted by Diversity Lab, along with Bloomberg Law and Stanford Law. Cozen O’Connor originally signed on in 2019 and became Mansfield 3.0 Certified in August 2020. The firm was among 118 leading law firms that achieved Mansfield 4.0 Certification in 2021.
Early data has shown these collective efforts have already made an impact. By 2020, it was reported that racial and ethnic diversity in leadership roles increased in participating firms at 30 times the rate of non-participating firms.
The 6.0 Certification will require firms to consider at least 30% historically underrepresented lawyers when appointing to leadership and C-suite roles and promoting them into the equity partnership, share with other firms in monthly knowledge-sharing forums, create and publish job descriptions for leadership roles, and continue to meet routine check-in, data collection, and reporting milestones. The “Certification Plus” category will be bestowed upon firms that have achieved diversity in leadership and have made advancement and compensation processes internally transparent.
For more information about the Mansfield Rule, visit Diversity Lab.
About Cozen O’Connor
Established in 1970, Cozen O’Connor has more than 825 attorneys who help clients manage risk and make better business decisions. The firm counsels clients on their most sophisticated legal matters in all areas of the law, including litigation, corporate, and regulatory law. Representing a broad array of leading global corporations and middle market companies, Cozen O’Connor services its clients’ needs through 32 offices across two continents.