Blazing a Trail
Each year, I look forward to announcing the results of the MCCA® Annual Survey of Fortune 500 General Counsel and our expanded look at the Fortune 501-1000. In 2006, 83 women are currently the chief legal officers of companies ranked in the Fortune 500, and this represents a rise over last year, when there were 76. You won’t want to miss the article about the strides being made by women in the corporate arena, and in the next issue of Diversity & the Bar®, we’ll report on increases in the number of minorities who are now chief legal officers at top corporations.
I suppose that I so look forward to this issue of Diversity & the Bar because it provides confirmation for me that Corporate America has become a lot more welcoming. In fact, the success of America’s top corporations now depends upon the contributions of groups of people who were at one time largely excluded from management opportunities, and countless men and women managers are meeting the daily challenge of encouraging all of their employees to contribute to their fullest potential.
Although I played absolutely no role in the success of the women general counsel who are profiled in the pages that follow, as a woman attorney, I cannot help feeling a sense of pride in their many accomplishments. Their success blazes trails for future generations of women lawyers, and I look forward to the day when we [women] are so well represented within the upper echelons of the legal profession that it’s no longer necessary to count and report on our progress. We will have simply arrived.
In addition to the feature on women general counsel, this issue of Diversity & the Bar spotlights the increasingly familiar multicultural families who are helping to reshape our American landscape. We talked with several lawyers who are enjoying the diversity within their own homes about the joys of parenting children whose cultural backgrounds are unlike their own. They admit that the diversity may at times bring challenges, but it’s their love that transcends, and they cannot imagine their lives being any richer or more fulfilling. MCCA greatly appreciates these families’ willingness to share their lives with us. Their stories are heartwarming and uplifting!
Let me close by saying that I hope you enjoy this very special issue of Diversity & the Bar as much as my team and I enjoyed preparing it for you.
Veta T. Richardson
From the July/August 2006 issue of Diversity & The Bar®