With diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives under attack in America writ large thanks to the Trump administration, the Diversity Lab has changed some of the language included on its Mansfield Certification website. The American Lawyer has noted several of these changes, including the removal of language referring to candidate pool quotas, as well as the removal of words within the DEI acronym, which have since been replaced with words like “equal” and “fairness.” Here are just a handful of the other changes that have been made, per Am Law:
While a section of the Mansfield Certification page saved on Jan. 12 by Internet Archive stated that the “Mansfield Difference” helped boost “inclusivity, access and diversity” in leadership roles at participating firms, the Jan. 27 version of the page stated the certification boosted “inclusivity, equal access and transparency in advancement processes and leadership roles.”
The word “equitable” was removed from the “Purpose” section of the Mansfield Certification page during the same time period, and “diversity” was removed from “leadership diversity” in a section detailing the expansion of talent pools at law firms.
Diversity Lab’s homepage also changed since a Jan. 22 snapshot from Internet Archive. The first paragraph now omits an entire sentence that previously stated, “The more diverse the leadership, the more inclusive their decisions for the benefit of their workforces and communities.” The closing line of the same paragraph now reads, “Our north star is fairness.”
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Although this looks like it was perhaps an effort to de-emphasize the “divisiveness” of DEI, Diversity Lab founder and CEO Caren Ulrich Stacy chalked the changes up to “normal website refinements.” Stacy continued, saying that prior to Trump’s Executive Orders concerning “illegal” DEI programming, the site “changed almost every day,” and that even now, the site will “continue to change almost every day.”
What hasn’t changed and won’t change is the Diversity Lab’s bottom line: Stacy notes that “our work remains the same: we are focused on equal access, equal treatment, and equal opportunities. We are also keenly aware of the scrutiny on language right now at a national level, and we want to be as clear as possible on our focus so there are no misconceptions—with greater inclusion, comes greater diversity.”
Diversity Lab Alters DEI-Centered Verbiage on Mansfield Certification Website [American Lawyer]
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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.