Dutch in-house counsel show a steady shift to female lawyers

A study of Dutch law departments by Dutch law firm Houthoff Buruma found a steady increase by age cohort in the percentage of in-house lawyers who are women. Above age 51, only 15 percent are women; 30 percent – double the older decade – are women in the 40-50 year old bracket; but younger than that the percentage doubles again, to 60 percent. This data is reported in the European Lawyer, Sept. 2010 at 32.

For the United States, partial data, not broken down by decades, suggests that the demographics are similar (See my post of March 16, 2008 #3: 40 percent women in-house; and Feb. 16, 2010: 14% of Fortune 500 law departments.).The ranks of women practicing in-house has climbed year over year.