Best practices in corporate legal departments.

Key Findings

Corporate legal departments have long benefited from the perception that they are a haven for women lawyers. However, Catalyst's 2001 study Women in Law reveals that only one-quarter of in-house women are satisfied with advancement opportunities, compared to one-half of law firm women. In-house women identify the following barriers to advancement:

* Exclusion from internal networks

* Commitment to personal and family responsibilities

* Lack of leadership accountability for women's advancement

* Stereotypes about women's roles and abilities

Catalyst President Sheila Wellington urges corporate legal departments to act: "For most corporate legal departments, a broad strategy of diversity and inclusion is the best way to address the barriers identified in our study." Turn the page to learn about best practices in corporate legal departments at three innovative companies.

General Electric

At General Electric, senior litigator P.D. Villareal spearheaded an extensive initiative to increase diversity in legal departments internally and externally. In 1999, he and the lawyers at GE's headquarters began by creating a Diversity Council, which conducted an internal demographic census for each GE legal department in the US. The Council also benchmarked its numbers against those of other corporate legal departments.

Based on the census data and benchmarking results--as well as input from senior legal managers and women and minority lawyers--the Diversity Council developed a plan. Each legal department at GE now measures its internal diversity on an annual basis. "Because we measure it, people take it more seriously," says Villareal. Another part of the plan concerns recruitment--no candidate is hired until a diverse slate has been interviewed.

In 2001, the focus of GE's plan shifted to looking at advancement. "We are beginning to measure not just the number of bodies that are here, but where they are in the hierarchy," Villareal reports.

Next, the Diversity Council concluded that GE's outside counsel must be drawn into the process. It designed a unique method for measuring law firm diversity, comparing the percentage of total billable hours charged to GE billed by women and minority lawyers to the percentage of women and minority lawyers at the firm. The council tested the new model with GE's ten largest firms and found a disparity between the percentage of minorities in the firm and the percentage of hours billed to GE by minority lawyers. The same trend was true but less pronounced with respect to women lawyers.

DuPont

Also in the spotlight for promoting diversity in corporate law is DuPont. In the early 1990s, DuPont restructured its external legal services. Since then, there have been regular meetings of its outside counsel, or "primary law firms." "I thought we could encourage the participation of even more women from our primary law firms," says Lisa Passante, Corporate Counsel at Dupont, "so I suggested to our management that we put on a program to bring together internal and external women lawyers working for Dupont." In 1998, the first such conference was held, with all the in-house women lawyers and two women from each external firm in attendance. At this first conference, the Dupont Women lawyers Network was created. The Network sponsors an annual conference for women within the Network, featuring speakers from other organizations, it also has committees that serve as resources for women on career development, mentoring, and networking issues. "The Network is a rare opportunity to make contacts and give women exposure that they would not have had otherwise," says Passante. "As a result, I see a lot more women involved in the DuPont Legal Model."

Shell Oil Company

Finally, the legal department at Shell Oil Company has also focused on internal and external diversity, in April, Shell's General Counsel, Cathy Lamboley, and her staff organized a daylong symposium on diversity for its outside law firms. As Ms. Lamboley explained, "Diversity is one of our core goals. We are a better provider of legal services if we understand and capitalize on our different backgrounds." Attorney Anne Weisberg, a Director in Catalyst's Advisory Services department, was a keynote speaker at the symposium, presenting findings from Catalyst's study on women in law. The symposium also included a panel discussion of attorneys from various law firms, including Vinson & Elkins who spoke about their innovative Women's Initiative--developed with assistance from Catalyst. For more information on these and other corporate legal department initiatives, please contact Catalyst Advisory Services.

Action Steps for Corporate Legal Departments

* Create a committee/council responsible for promoting diversity within your department; determine whether the scope of the committee's work includes partnering with external law firms regarding promoting diversity.

* Link with existing diversity initiatives in your company.

* Develop a system for measuring diversity internally and externally, and communicate results to both audiences.

* Develop mentoring programs and networks for women and people of color within your deportment; include outside counsel to the extent possible.

* Integrate diversity goals into routine organizational practices such as recruiting, new hire orientation, career management, and career development.

* Track progress and reward successful efforts made by your outside law firms to increase diversity.

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