Leadership Commitment.
Firm leadership demonstrates its commitment to diversity and inclusion through direct involvement, financial support and oversight. WilmerHale is proud to unite with a group of law firms that has agreed to join the Mansfield Rule, an innovative concept (similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule) that seeks to ensure greater diversity of women and attorneys of color in candidate pools for recruiting, promotion, and leadership opportunities within the firm. WilmerHale is also a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, an organization of more than 300 corporate chief legal officers and law firm managing partners who have committed to nurturing diversity in the US legal profession.

Professional Development and Inclusive Workplaces.
Diversity Committee co-chairs, the Director of Diversity and Inclusion, and other key business professionals work with department and practice leaders to ensure that work assignments, training, professional development, mentoring and client engagement processes further the firm’s goal of developing and advancing all of our outstanding lawyers.

Recruitment and the Diversity Pipeline.
We are committed to attracting an exceptional and diverse group of lawyers and law students. Our summer associate classes continue our outstanding results, and we include diversity in our recruitment of lateral partners and other attorneys as well. We also support various organizations committed to building a diverse pipeline of talent to the profession.

Client Engagement.
WilmerHale recognizes that our clients share our commitment to furthering diversity and inclusion in the legal profession, so we seek to find ways to work together to address these issues. We partner with clients on a wide range of programs, including CLEs featuring our diverse attorneys, mentoring programs, diversity pipeline programs and diversity summits. We have also invited clients to attend and participate in our Diversity Speakers Series, which features presentations by prominent lawyers in private practice, academia and public service. In addition, the firm hosts city-wide networking events that provide our lawyers with opportunities to interact with clients, colleagues, peers from other law firms and government agencies, and law students.