Cyrus Mehri

Working IDEAL Co-founder Cyrus Mehri, Esq. co-leads our work in DEI strategy, policy development, leadership engagement, and developing key metrics. He has developed innovative and effective diversity and inclusion tools across various industries – including the Rooney Rule, a recognized best practice to build diverse leadership. As founding partner of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, Cyrus has identified barriers to equity and implemented reforms at major organizations and companies across industries. He led work with Pam to promote new diversity, equity and inclusion disclosure requirements at large publicly traded companies. He seeks to strategically advance America’s workplaces, from Corporate America to the world of professional sports, to governments and nonprofits. 

Advising Professional Sports Leagues, Teams and Affinity Groups. Cyrus has had a unique role advising the National Football League for almost two decades on equity and inclusion, leading to a 400% increase in the head coach minority hiring rate — and making the “Rooney Rule” a best practice in organizations around the country. Since Cyrus started this work, later joined by Working IDEAL Network Member Jeremi Duru, ten Superbowl teams have been led by a minority head coach or general manager, and there are now record numbers of minority coaches in the pipeline and an increased emphasis on cultural change. In addition to advances in racial equity, Cyrus has advised the league on breaking gender barriers for coaches, scouts and game day officials, and on changes in Super Bowl ad standards to remove objectifying content. Finally, Cyrus co-created for the NFL a new Player Assessment Test that won the highest award in the field of industrial and organizational psychology for its minimization of racial and socioeconomic bias in assessing cognitive ability. 

The Rooney Rule has been used as a model in other sports contexts and in the public and private spheres. For example, in 2011, in a meeting heralded by the Daily Telegraph as “historic,” Cyrus began working with leaders of the English Premier League, Football League and Football Association on adapting the Rooney Rule for professional soccer in the United Kingdom.  Cyrus and Jeremi also engaged with leading football officials in the United Kingdom, resulting in the English National Team adopting a version of the Rooney Rule.

Cyrus co-founded, and Cyrus and Jeremi served as counsel for, the Fritz Pollard Alliance (FPA) of coaches, scouts, and front office executives in the National Football League. The FPA, with Cyrus’ and Jeremi’s assistance, created a powerful working relationship with the NFL resulting in substantial DEI gains over many years.

Cyrus and Pam’s landmark 2001 settlement with the Coca-Cola Company led to innovative reforms to remove barriers and increase opportunities in pay and promotion for Black employees, including the original diverse slate policy that was the foundation for the Rooney Rule, using DEI as a business performance measure for leadership, and establishing accountable reporting and oversight through the Diversity Task Force.

Cyrus has also led and co-led some of the largest and most significant race and gender employment discrimination cases in U.S. history and Cyrus uses the lessons from these groundbreaking settlements to inform his advisory work with Working IDEAL clients. Some of the most notable cases include: Roberts v. Texaco Inc. ($176 million; S.D.N.Y. 1997); Ingram v. The Coca-Cola Company ($192 million; N.D. Ga. 2001); August-Johnson v. Morgan Stanley ($47 million; D.D.C. 2007); Amachoev v. Smith Barney ($34 million; N.D. Cal. 2008); Norflet v. John Hancock Life Insurance Co. ($24 million; D. Conn. 2009): Carter v. Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC ($32 million; D.D.C. 2011); and Brown v. Medicis Pharmaceutical ($7.1 million; D.D.C. 2013). The hallmark of Cyrus’ settlements is innovative and long-term programmatic relief to change corporate practices for the better in the long-term, leading the New York Times to say, “Mr. Mehri’s vision for corporate America involves sweeping change, not the piecemeal kind.” Many of these innovations advance cutting-edge workplaces, as Cyrus discusses in his work, “A Toolbox for Innovative Title VII Settlement Agreements.”

Thought Leadership on DEI Metrics. In 2016, Cyrus and Pam developed a detailed proposal asking the SEC to require new disclosures related to DEI performance, allowing investors, customers and other stakeholders to make better-informed decisions about their money. They renewed this call in 2021 for disclosures related to Board accountability and representation, data on leadership and workforce leadership diversity and pay equity, and measures of inclusive workplace practices and culture. Read more about their approach here. 

Cyrus’ work has been featured in several books, including: “Advancing the Ball – Race, Reformation, and the Quest for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL”, by Professor Jeremi Duru; “Roberts v. Texaco: A story of Race and Corporate America,” by Bari Ellen Roberts with Jack White, and “The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca Cola Company,” by Constance L. Hays.

A frequent writer and speaker on issues of workplace equality, he co-authored the paper, “21st Century Tools for Advancing Equal Opportunity: Recommendations for the Next Administration” and its follow-up, “Defending Twentieth Century Equal Employment Reforms in the Twenty-First Century,” and “A Few Thoughts on Tackling the Issue of Diversity and Inclusiveness in Law Firms.”

He has written extensively on securities enforcement and corporate governance, including “Stock Option Equity: Building Democracy While Building Wealth,” and  for Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law, 9, 99-152 (with Andrea Giampetro-Meyer and Michael B. Runnels).

Among other career honors, Cyrus has received the Cornell Law School’s Public Service Award, the Award of Excellence from the Pigskin Club of Washington, DC, and has been profiled by along with other successful Iranian-Americans.

Cyrus serves on the advisory board of Cornell Law School and the judicial nominations committees for the American Constitution Society and the National Employment Lawyers Association. He also serves on the boards of the labor oriented Peggy Browning Fund and Farmworker Justice.

Cyrus is a frequent guest on radio and TV, and a popular lecturer on CLE programs. 

Cyrus graduated from Cornell Law School in 1988, where he served as articles editor for the Cornell International Law Journal. He clerked for the Honorable John T. Nixon, U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee.