White & Case Mansfield Certified for Its Consideration of Women and Minorities for Leadership

Diversity Lab has announced that White & Case has fully satisfied its criteria for Mansfield Certification, following the certification program's inaugural one-year pilot. The certification confirms that White & Case has "affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women and attorneys of color for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, and senior lateral positions," according to Diversity Lab.

The goal of Mansfield Certification is "to boost the representation of diverse lawyers in law firm leadership by broadening the pool of candidates considered for these opportunities," according to Diversity Lab, which is "an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in law."

As part of achieving Mansfield Rule Certification, applicant firms adopted documentation and tracking norms to measure their progress and identify areas for improvement. "We found that the 30 percent metric and the built-in accountability have had a positive effect on encouraging our current leaders to expand the pool of talented lawyers they develop and select as the next generation of leaders," said White & Case Partner David Koschik (New York), a member of White & Case's Executive Committee and a participant in Diversity Lab's first Women in Law Hackathon. "Having baseline data on these categories is also incredibly helpful as we move into the Mansfield 2.0 certification year and continue to broaden our diverse pipeline of leaders."

Mansfield 2.0, the next round of certification, will include consideration of LGBTQ lawyers in addition to women and lawyers of color as part of achieving a diverse candidate pool. It will also take into account consideration for roles in client pitches and will measure a firm's level of transparency on its appointment and election processes.

As a Mansfield Certified firm, White & Case will be invited to send its newly promoted diverse and women partners to one of three upcoming client forum events in New York, San Francisco and Minneapolis/St. Paul, where they can connect with lawyers in legal departments from more than 60 companies, including Baxter Healthcare, HP Inc., Salesforce, and Walmart.

White & Case has long been recognized as a leading law firm for diversity, a value nurtured by the Firm's Diversity Initiative. In June, the Firm was ranked first for the fifth consecutive year in The American Lawyer magazine's "Diversity Scorecard 2018." The Firm is the recipient of numerous Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards, and has been honored for ten consecutive years by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation with a 100 percent rating in its annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), placing White & Case on the short list of "Best Places to Work" for LGBT employees.