Fish & Richardson Receives Gold Standard Certification from Women in Law Empowerment Forum for 2018

Fish & Richardson has been awarded the 2018 Gold Standard Certification by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF). WILEF grants Gold Standard status to a select group of law firms that meet stringent objective criteria demonstrating the firms' commitment to retaining and advancing women attorneys. WILEF certification is the only independent, public recognition program that measures the success of law firm women's initiatives. Fish was among only 42 law firms in the U.S. to receive this highly competitive certification.

The firm has had a formal Diversity Initiative in place for over 10 years to help attract, retain and advance a diverse legal staff. In 2017, Fish undertook several new diversity initiatives, including being among the first 30 U.S. law firms in 2017 to adopt the "Mansfield Rule," which focuses on increasing the representation of women and attorneys of color in leadership positions.

Fish was one of the original 15 law firms to participate in the pilot OnRamp Fellowship Program, a unique re-entry program that matches experienced women lawyers returning to the legal profession with law firms for a one-year paid fellowship.

To receive Gold Standard Certification, a firm must satisfy both the mandatory criterion that 20 percent of equity partners or, alternatively, 33 percent of the attorneys becoming equity partners during the past twelve months, are women. The firm also must meet at least three of the following five criteria: 15 percent of firm and U.S. branch office heads are women; 20 percent of the firm's primary governance committee are women; 20 percent of the firm's compensation committee or its equivalent are women; 15 percent of the top half of the firm's equity partners in terms of compensation are women; and 7 percent of women equity partners are women of color or 3.5 percent of women equity partners are LGBT.