What Happened
The Federal Trade Commission said Diversity Lab LLC, a for-profit DEI consultancy, permanently ceased operations after an FTC investigation into anticompetitive behavior related to its Mansfield Certification program.
According to the FTC, Diversity Lab told the agency it had filed paperwork to dissolve with the California Secretary of State. The agency said its inquiry focused on whether the Mansfield program helped law firms adopt common DEI hiring standards in ways that could violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act.
The FTC said the program grew to include more than 360 law firms. It also said the certification standards included candidate pools made up of at least 30% people with particular race, gender or other demographic characteristics for certain employment decisions, and that more than half of participating firms were in a plus tier tied to implementation in final employment decisions.
Why This Matters
This is not a court judgment saying every allegation was proven. It is the FTC announcing that a company under investigation shut itself down and describing why the agency was asking questions.
The serious issue is labor-market collusion. Companies can argue about DEI all day, but competitors coordinating on hiring standards is exactly the kind of thing antitrust law exists to inspect. The FTC framed the concern as firms entering agreements that could affect who gets considered or hired.
The Dumb Part With The Hiring Spreadsheet
The dumb part is the phrase "writes the unwritten rules." If your sales pitch to hundreds of law firms is that you can write the unwritten rules of hiring, do not act surprised when the antitrust agency pulls up a chair and asks who else was in the meeting.
Law firms sell risk management for a living. Somehow, hundreds of them joined a program that ended with the FTC describing a quota-flavored group homework assignment and the architect filing dissolution paperwork.
The Bottom Line
The FTC said Chairman Andrew Ferguson had sent warning letters in January to 42 law firms that participated in Mansfield. The real stupid shit is when institutions full of lawyers need the government to remind them that hiring markets are not supposed to run on shared secret club rules.
Sources
FTC: ‘Architect’ of Law Firm DEI Programs Dissolves
FTC: January 2026 warning letter to Mansfield Certification firms