O’Hagan Meyer is thrilled to share that we have successfully achieved Mansfield Rule Certification!

The goal of the Mansfield Rule, administered by Diversity Lab, is to increase and sustain diversity in law firm leadership through proven and carefully considered changes to the internal processes which provide growth opportunities to all our attorneys.

O’Hagan Meyer understands that prioritizing a culture of belonging strengthens our Firm, empowers our attorneys, and ultimately results in better outcomes for our clients. Our participation in the Mansfield Rule has offered us an opportunity to refocus our intentions and realign our efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We are proud of the measurable impact we have achieved over the past 18 months as we have worked toward Mansfield Rule Certification.

• We created a tool to encourage team members to self-identify as members of diverse groups, either openly or confidentially, and more than 80% chose to participate.
• We expanded our recruiting program to include more varied resources which not only introduced our Firm to more qualified candidates, but ultimately increased the number of talented diverse attorneys we hired.
• We implemented a process which tracks client development opportunities and the attorneys who participate. Partners who lead that activity mindfully expanded their teams to include more diverse attorneys resulting in a measurable positive impact.
• We considered broad slates of candidates for partnership and leadership roles which has driven industry-high rates of diverse representation in our Firm.

In addition to building a firm which shares opportunity, we also must nurture a culture of belonging and inclusivity. To that end, success will mean going beyond the Mansfield Rule.

• We launched a formal mentoring program which thoughtfully connects associates and partners who share similar backgrounds, experiences or practices.
• We support attorneys who opt to follow a non-linear career path in order to establish their unique work/life harmony. Attorneys have embraced these more flexible paths in order to care for young children, aging parents, and loved ones with disabilities.
• We designed a professional development program to help ease the transition for attorneys who previously worked as public defenders or military attorneys.

Firm co-founders Kevin O’Hagan and Charlie Meyer recently shared their thoughts on achieving Mansfield Rule Certification, “Our nation’s diversity it is among its greatest strengths, and O’Hagan Meyer is strengthened as a firm when the diversity of our attorneys is more reflective of our clients and our country. Through our participation in the Mansfield Rule, we renew our commitment to the intention and transparency which provides all attorneys an equal chance to thrive in their area of practice.”

Ongoing participation in the Mansfield Rule Certification effort means continuing to focus on actions rather than words. We look forward to building on this accomplishment knowing that it better positions us to meet the needs of our attorneys and our clients now and in the future.

You can learn more here about Mansfield Rule Certification and Diversity Lab’s effort to increase the diversity of law firm leadership.