In-House Interrogatory

Listen to this article

The in-house legal department: Is it a woman’s world?

Canadian female GCs are saying that the not-so collegial atmosphere at law firms has caused them to take jobs with in-house legal departments at corporations.

Retired partner Kirby Chown and executive search consultant Carrie Mandel, the authors of  “Breaking Though: Tales from the Top Canadian Women General Counsel,” found female attorneys are better represented in Canada‘s top 500 public companies than at private law firms.

For the newly-released book, the authors interviewed 32 female GCs. They also crunched some numbers and found that 27 percent of the general counsel at Canada’s top 500 public companies were women, while women made up just 20 percent of the partners in private practice.

While collegiality ranked high among the women the authors spoke to, working for a company rather than a law firm can have some other perks — e.g., more predictable hours and no real need for rainmaking. So, here’s our question for you:

Why did you choose to go in-house, and what makes you stay?

Leave a comment below or email me.

Need to Know:

• A former Google deputy general counsel will run the U.S. Patent Office.
• Scientific Games named a new general counsel.
• Two thirds of GCs feel worse about the economy.
• American Express named an interim general counsel during a company reshuffling.
• The chief counsel in Kellogg’s Europe, the Middle East and Africa division is headed to Archer Daniels Midland.
• Liberty Property Trust named a new general counsel.

Follow us on Twitter for In-House news and discussion: @TDRInHouse

• Want the latest on who’s been hired, fired or moving and shaking? Head to our Movers and Shakers page to find out.
• For networking events and other happenings this week in Maryland, check out our calendar of events.
• Get the very latest updates from our law reporters on Twitter: @TDRKristi, @Steve_Lash, @TDRDanny.
• Check out The Daily Record on Facebook.