Women hold most Canadian general counsel directorships, study finds

General counsel may still be rare members of Canadian boards but, when they do have directorships, they are most likely to be women, new research finds.

According to a study by law firm Blake Cassels & Graydon, 35 current and former general counsel held just 44 of 2,288 board positions at the 241 publicly listed companies that comprised the S&P/TSX Composite Index last year. Fifty-nine percent of those general counsel were women, up from 45 percent in 2015.

As such, female general counsel have exceeded gender parity on board representation, something that does not yet exist among lawyers in general, where women hold 23 percent of board positions, or board members in general, where women hold just 20 percent of board positions.

The study also finds that general counsel directors are at varying stages of their legal careers. In 2016, 20 percent were active general counsel, though none served on the board of their own company; 37 percent were former general counsel who had moved on to a business role; and 43 percent joined the board having retired from their general counsel role.

Companies in the banking and insurance industry had the largest number of female general counsel (six) on their boards last year, as well as the largest number of legal professionals (63). Banks also had the highest percentage of women on their boards, at 34 percent. The energy sector had the largest number of all general counsel, with a total of 11, five of whom were women.

‘There is a long way to go to reach gender parity in Canada, but this study provides an inspiring outlook: there is opportunity out there for female [general counsel] to use their business and strategic skill-set to get on boards,’ says Alison Jeffrey, senior adviser on strategic initiatives and client development coaching at Blake Cassels & Graydon. ‘In fact, there has never been a better time to leverage the [general counsel’s] value proposition as an ideal candidate for board positions.’

‘We believe that by properly positioning themselves, women [general counsel] can demonstrate that they have an important skill-set to bring to the board table,’ the report’s authors write. ‘In addition to operational and strategic experience across a wide range of subject matters, this skill-set includes expertise in governance, compliance and risk management. [General counsel] understand both the threat and opportunity of disruption and are practical, solution-oriented decision-makers.’

In 2016 the food and retail sector had the highest proportion (14 percent) of board positions held by female legal professionals, including general counsel and other lawyers. Transportation had the second-highest such proportion (13 percent).

Overall, the study finds that there were 216 non-general counsel lawyers on boards in the sample. Legal professionals (12 percent of board positions) were underrepresented compared with accountants (20 percent) and technical experts (23 percent).