Robins Kaplan Increases Diverse Hires With Rooney Rule

Over a decade after Dan Rooney shook up NFL hiring practices, at least one law firm has begun to see measurable results from a policy that requires its leaders to review a diverse slate of candidates for each new hire. Robins Kaplan said that it quadrupled the percentage of attorneys of color it hired for lateral associate positions in just one year after implementing its own “Rooney Rule.”

The 220-lawyer litigation firm began developing the rule when it realized its lateral associate hires were not as diverse as its summer hires, according to Chandra Kilgriff, the firm’s director of Diversity, Inclusion, ...