Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP is proud to announce that the firm has achieved Midsize Mansfield Certification Plus. The firm completed a rigorous 16-month collaboration with Diversity Lab that assesses whether law firms have considered candidate pools composed of at least 30% of individuals who are women, racially or ethnically diverse, LGBTQ+, and disabled for all attorney hires, partner promotions, significant firm leadership roles, and inclusion on trial teams and in meetings with prospective clients.
“In every category measured, our firm exceeded the 30% threshold set by Mansfield, and in many cases surpassed that benchmark by an impressive margin,” Keker, Van Nest & Peters Managing Partner Laurie Carr Mims said. “We are honored to be included among the prestigious group of Mansfield Plus Certified firms, and there is no time for complacency. We are committed to continuing to collect this data, track our results, and increase transparency in firm processes to ensure continued consideration of a more diverse candidate pool for leadership roles within the firm and on our clients’ litigation matters.”
The Mansfield process is a behavioral science and data-driven approach to help increase diversity in law firm leadership. The “Plus” designation signifies that Keker, Van Nest & Peters has not only made efforts to improve diversity in hiring, promotion, and leadership, but that the firm has also shown significant measured progress in these areas. The Midsize Mansfield certification process, modeled after the version for larger firms, was fine-tuned to boost diversity in leadership for firms with smaller lawyer populations, single office locations, and leaner firm leadership structures.
“A significant contributor to our firm’s success is our ability to attract and retain attorneys who bring perspectives from differing backgrounds, cultures, and identities,” Keker, Van Nest & Peters partner and Diversity Committee Chair Julia Allen said. “Across the legal industry, increasing pathways to leadership roles in law firms and on cases for a more diverse group of lawyers requires intentionality, focus, strategy, and buy-in from senior leadership. Although there is more work to do, it is encouraging to see the commitment of all the Mansfield Certified firms to increase momentum in this area.”
Keker, Van Nest & Peters is an active Leadership Council on Legal Diversity member firm, a member of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, and in 2023 was ranked as one of the most diverse firms comparable to law firms with 100 to 250 lawyers by Law360 Pulse.
About Keker, Van Nest & Peters
For more than 40 years, Keker, Van Nest & Peters has litigated complex, high-stakes civil and criminal cases throughout the nation. The firm takes the cases where companies, products, and careers are riding on the result. Our clients are high-profile individuals, as well as some of the world’s most successful companies, including Genentech, Google, Instacart, Lyft, Major League Baseball, Meta, Netflix and Qualcomm. The firm’s areas of expertise include intellectual property, professional liability, class actions, general contract and commercial litigation, antitrust, white collar, and appellate.