Recently Mary Cranston, a DirectWomen Board Institute alum, sat down with YourABA to discuss the role of women lawyers on corporate boards, her experience with DirectWomen, a program co-sponsored by the ABA Section of Business Law and Catalyst, and her recent appointment to the Visa board of directors.

With such accomplishments as becoming the first woman litigation partner in your firm and the first woman to lead an AMLAW 100 law firm, you’ve achieved a great deal in your professional career so far. What attracted you to the DirectWomen program?

As I was thinking about what I wanted to do in the later years of my career, I came to see that serving on public boards is an interest of mine. These boards oversee the strategy of a company and that’s what interests me the most. I’ve been on a public board for eight years and I’ve found that experience worthwhile. I thought that serving on additional boards would allow me to contribute. Going into it, I knew that there would be some bias against attorneys, really almost more so than against women on boards. When I found out about the DirectWomen Institute, I was excited about the concept because I thought I could take on the issue of lawyers directly and maybe make a difference.

What have you taken away from this experience so far?

It was a great program – a good overview of the responsibilities and duties of corporate directors. It also provided the chance to interact with a variety of professionals who were very knowledgeable about the process of placing women lawyers on boards. Gaining their perspectives on how to strategize about dealing with some of those problems proved to be helpful.

In your opinion, what makes a woman lawyer a good fit for corporate board membership?

What is needed in a boardroom is excellent teamwork. Women who succeed in law firms have developed the ability to get along in a large group using the power of persuasion. They are also used to working effectively in a male environment. Lawyers generally are good on boards because many of us have a very well-defined sense of securities laws and corporate governance issues. We have alarms in our heads that go off when things aren’t right, which is helpful in a boardroom. Additionally, I think many lawyers actually sit in boardrooms a lot, deal with board processes in the course of their work and have much more exposure to boards than many others – even the average CEO.

Congratulations on your recent board appointment at Visa. You also currently serve on a number of nonprofit boards. Is there a difference between working on a corporate board verses a nonprofit one?

Yes, there are several kinds of nonprofit boards. There are some nonprofit organizations – such as large medical groups or dental groups – that are really run like public corporations. I sit on Stanford University’s board and that is a very large, complicated organization. It’s as complex as a corporate board.

In general, I think corporate boards are more complex in that they have more issues, more legal restrictions, more concerns about the public that they’re reporting to. Even though I think that corporate boards are more challenging, I very much enjoy nonprofit boards because they and their organizations do a lot of good in this world. It is possible to align membership on nonprofit boards with personal passion, providing intrinsic interest and satisfaction.

Do you think the DirectWomen program is foretelling of a trend to come: more lawyers in general seeking these appointments?

I think so. One of the things that has happened is the scandals in the public company sector with boards. Those scandals have made boards more open to lawyers. In fact, I think some of those problems could have been avoided if there had been more lawyers on boards. The notion of lawyers being a problem in the boardroom is shifting. In addition, companies that are diverse, which have men and women in numbers commensurate with those in the general population, do better economically. With that in mind, I think the demand for women on boards is going to continue to steadily increase. A woman lawyer has a very developed skill set that can often round out other people on the board, serving as a good balance. So I think that compared to five years ago the opportunities are much better and I think that they’re going to improve in the future.

What do boards look for in a candidate?

They’re looking for well roundedness; strategic, big-picture thinking, and specific skill sets that balance out others on the board. In my background, I’ve found it useful that I was the CEO of my company for nine years. I have an antitrust and securities experience. I’ve been on a public board for a long time. Strategically, a woman can use her networks to obtain a board appointment. It doesn’t have to be a major board, but just having a public board experience on a resume makes it easier to be appointed to the second one.

What advice would you give other women lawyers who are interested in becoming board directors?

Women should take steps to make it happen. They can talk to people they know on corporate boards, express their interest and seek their advice. That kind of networking tends to lead to opportunities developing. Women can find out who are the best headhunters specializing in board placements in their communities and get to know them. They can make sure their resumes are appropriately written for boards, meaning that the resume should be no more than two pages and should highlight executive experience and the skills important to a board. A lot of lawyers have resumes that are laundry lists of everything they’ve ever done. That’s too long for the average board recruiter. The resume needs to be shorter, more honed. That’s something that women can work on.

Do you have any final thoughts to share?

I think DirectWomen is a great concept. The excitement that greeted it in the community suggests that the Initiative is really meeting a need and that helping women lawyers is essential.

The DirectWomen Board Institute is a two-day workshop designed to heighten women lawyers’ understanding of the demands of corporate board membership. The Institute and the Sandra Day O’Connor Board Excellence Award, an award honoring women lawyers who have contributed to the advancement of women lawyers as corporate directors, are part of the DirectWomen Initiative. The Initiative –a program of the ABA Section of Business Law and Catalyst, leading global nonprofit corporate research and advisory organization that builds inclusive environments for women, aims to prepare qualified women lawyers for service on boards of U.S. companies.

The second annual DirectWomen Board Institute is accepting applications until Oct. 15, 2007. To begin the application process, download a printable or electronic form here. For more information on DirectWomen, visit www.abanet.org/buslaw/directwomen.

Back to top

Back to home