Apryl Mathes

Diversity Lab works with law firms and legal departments across the globe to create more fair, equitable, and inclusive communities and workplaces. We disrupt bias in talent systems by embedding structure, accountability, and transparency. We leverage data, behavioral science, and design thinking to create and pilot experimental ideas with more than 300 leading law firms and legal departments across the U.S. and beyond. In collaboration with our clients, we measure the results and share the lessons learned with the broader legal community. Our inaugural project – the OnRamp Fellowship – is now the largest re-entry program for lawyers returning to the profession after an extended career hiatus. To inspire others to develop and experiment with innovative initiatives such as the Fellowship, we launched the Women in Law Hackathon in 2016, and the Diversity in Law Hackathon series in 2018. These first-of-their-kind "Shark Tank" style pitch competitions brought together 200 high-level law firm partners, legal department leaders, talent experts, and law students in small teams working together to generate ideas to increase diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. The Mansfield Rule is an idea that was generated by one of the Women in Law Hackathon teams and further developed by Diversity Lab. Starting with the first iteration in 2017, which included more than 40 law firms and now includes 200+ firms, Diversity Lab has measured and reported significant progress in the Certified firms’ pipelines to leadership. As a result of its success, there is now a version for midsize firms and legal departments and we recently expanded into the UK. In 2020, Diversity Lab launched the Move the Needle Fund (MTN), the first-ever collaboration among 30 legal departments, four law firms, and a dozen community leaders designed to test and measure research-backed “bias interrupters.”