GCs and Gender

After rising for four consecutive years, the percentage of Fortune 500 companies whose general counsel are female declined this year.

Nonetheless, according to surveys by the Washington, D.C.?based Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), the share of those companies with women as their top legal officers remained higher than it was five years ago. In 2009, 85 Fortune 500 companies (or 17 percent of the total) had female GCs, up from 75 companies (or 15 percent) in 2004. But that's lower than last year's 92 companies (18.4 percent).

California is home to nine of the country's Fortune 500 companies with women for general counsel, tied with Illinois and behind New York, where eleven such companies are based.

In the current survey, nine women of color held positions as Fortune 500 general counsel, according to the MCCA. That's 10.6 percent of the total and the same as in 2008.

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