Some 21 percent of the top lawyers at the nation’s Fortune 500 companies are women, an increase from 17 percent five years ago, according to a new tally of corporate counsel ranks.
That’s up from one woman heading a law department 25 years ago, according to ALM, the legal research company, which released the information Tuesday. Even so, there were three fewer women holding these top legal posts last year than there were in 2012, underlining the halting progress of women to the highest corporate rungs despite the rise in the number of female law school graduates and the corresponding increase in the number of practicing women lawyers.
Women, however, have broken some of the toughest glass ceilings, with five now leading the law departments of aerospace and defense companies, traditionally all-male preserves. But the tabulation found that female corporate counsel are clustered in industries like insurance, which has nine top women lawyers, and food consumer products and specialty retailers, which have seven in each industry.
Four of the country’s 17 largest corporations have women in the top legal position, called either the general counsel or chief legal officer. Wal-Mart Stores, Honeywell International, United States Steel Corporation, FedEx and Lockheed Martin are well-known companies that have women as their top legal officers.
But last year’s dip in female corporate counsel ranks, which was the first known decrease in 25 years, was a cautionary note for women with legal careers. Outside the top 500 corporations, women hold only 17 percent of the top legal jobs at companies ranked 501 to 1,000, according to the ALM list. Figures from American Bar Association place the figure even lower, at 15.6 percent.
Even with a gradual rise in women holding top corporate legal jobs, companies are not necessarily the most diverse employers.
The number of female partners in American law firms is 19 percent, according to ALM data, a figure that has stayed fairly static for the past five years. It is only 3 percent for women who have an equity stake, or full partnership, in law firms.
The first recorded corporate counsel was Mary Ann Hynes, who was promoted to the top legal job at CCH Inc., an information service provider, in 1979. Within two decades, Fortune 500 companies had 44 female general counsel. The number grew to 106 this year, according to ALM numbers, which can be found at corporatecounsel.com.
Corporate counsel jobs were once viewed as a legal backwater for lawyers who wanted regular hours, but such jobs are now prized as the role of top company lawyer has broadened. Since the 2008 recession, more corporate lawyers are tightly controlling spending on outside legal help and expanding their ranks to handle routine litigation matters.
