General counsel: companies 'more aware' than law firms of corporate social responsibility

The financial services sector offers the best opportunities for women to head a legal department, US research revealed this week.


A survey of Fortune 500 companies by Corporate Counsel magazine in the US found that just under 15% of companies' legal departments were headed by women - with almost half of the top-25 women general counsel working for financial services companies.


Ann O'Brien, head of legal services at bank HBOS, said the financial services industry was also an attractive option for women in-house lawyers in the UK.


She said: 'HBOS and other financial services companies tend to have good maternity packages, and that is an attractive feature and good selling point for companies, particularly given that salaries in private practice are higher than in-house.


'Women generally find working in-house attractive, and in my generation, the opportunities for partnership in law firms were quite limited. A lot of women went into industry and commerce because there were better careers there. But nowadays it is more equally attractive to women and men.'


She added that three of the bank's five divisions are headed by women.


Carol Williams, head of legal at Northern Foods and former chairwoman of the Law Society's Commerce and Industry Group, said: 'I suspect that the percentage of women heading up the legal function in-house is higher [than the percentage heading up law firms] and quite a few of those women are in the financial services sector.


'Companies generally give better opportunities for women, because they are more aware of their corporate social responsibilities [than law firms]. They tend to have better schemes for maternity and flexible working... Northern Foods is one of the few companies to have a female chief executive officer.'


According to the US survey, 16 women were promoted to a head of legal position in the Fortune 500 last year, but 14 left their role. There are now 73 women general counsel in the Fortune 500, compared to 71 last year.


High-profile women general counsel in the UK include Anne Fletcher at BT and Chrissi Evans at car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler UK.