An update to Blakes groundbreaking study on women general counsel (GCs) on boards was published this week.
Blakes Interim Board Report 2017: Opportunities for Women General Counsel provides a progress report following the original study’s publication in May.
The updated study shows an increase in both the number of positions on boards of publicly listed companies and the number of GCs on those boards. GCs now occupy 58 of the 2,319 board positions included in the research. Previously there were GCs in 44 of the 2,288 board positions.
Women GCs remain in the majority of board positions for general counsel (59 per cent).
Blakes Board Report: Opportunities for Women General Counsel is the first benchmarking study in Canada on the professional background of board members, with a focus on legal professionals.
The research for this interim study was conducted on 2017 proxy data of the 245 publicly listed companies that comprised the S&P/TSX Composite Index, which represented more than 75 per cent of the total market capitalization of the TSX.
The interim report was officially unveiled at the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Wednesday. The next full report on opportunities for women general counsel will follow in the Spring.
