Legal Mandate to Include Female Executives

Legal Mandate to Include Female Executives

We are so pleased to be joined by Janet Langford Kelly, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for ConocoPhillips for this month's Leading Ladies installment. Kelly is a leader in her industry and inspiration for women attorneys navigating the corporate ladder in heels.

We are so pleased to be joined by Janet Langford Kelly, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for ConocoPhillips for this month’s Leading Ladies installment.  Kelly is a leader in her industry and inspiration for women attorneys  navigating the corporate ladder in heels.  

JLK:  Looks like Germany may join France, Iceland, Norway and Spain in mandating women in leadership roles at companies. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has adopted a bill that will require large companies listed on Germany’s DAX index to fill at least 30 percent of their board seats with female non-executive directors. The bill will also require large and mid-size German companies to employ more women as managers. If passed by Parliament, the mandate would take effect in 2016.  

Germany Requires Large Companies to Put More Women in the Boardroom

What do you think about the mandate?  Will it help or hurt equality in the workplace?

Follow the link to read the article.  Please share your comments and pass this interesting article along to your colleagues and friends.  

Janet Langford Kelly

Janet Langford Kelly

Janet Langford Kelly has more than 30 years of experience at private law firms and corporations. She serves as Senior Vice President Legal, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for ConocoPhillips.

She joined ConocoPhillips in 2006 as deputy general counsel and corporate secretary. Previously, she was a partner at Zelle, Hoffman, Voelbel, Mason and Gette and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law. She also previously served as Kmart Corporation's senior vice president, chief administrative officer and chief compliance officer; as Kellogg Company's executive vice president of corporate development and administration, general counsel and secretary; and as Sara Lee Corporation's senior vice president, secretary and general counsel.

Kelly began her career as a law clerk for a judge in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She was later an associate in the corporate and securities group with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York and at Sidley & Austin in Chicago, and became partner in 1991.

She serves as a trustee for Columbia Funds and is Chairman of the Houston Grand Opera Endowment Board; she also serves on the boards of directors for the Houston Grand Opera, Yellowstone Park Foundation the National Association of Corporate Directors Texas TriCities Chapter. Previously, she has served on the boards of United Airlines, Grinnell College, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and on the New York Stock Exchange's Legal Advisory Committee.

Kelly received a bachelor's degree in history, with honors, from Grinnell College in 1979, and a juris doctorate from Yale University in 1983.

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Once a month LWL will feature Leading Ladies, female attorneys who have inspired us with their success both in and out of the legal profession. Justice Sandee Bryan Marion of the Fourth Court of Appeals of San Antonio has joined us to offer her advice to young female attorneys.

Leading Ladies: Elizabeth Campbell

I attended a women’s event recently—just another luncheon for a good cause, but I made an incredible observation. The women who were most engaged in talking about their various charities and all of the non-profit work they managed to fit into their very busy professional lives, were women of the Baby Boomer generation. Either they had no children to begin with, or their children were away at college or had moved on to their own adult lives. Conversely, one young mother of two—or was it one mother of two young children?—noted that she simply did not have time to volunteer for non-profits; she would rather spend her precious “free” time with her children. To be sure, the “Gen X” or “Gen Y” discussion was quite different from that of my Baby Boomer peers.

Can women really do it all? Absolutely.

Little mid-week inspiration here—Judge Lindsey Scott is not only the first female district judge in Jefferson County, she is also just 34 years old, a former assistant district attorney, a wife, and mother of 2. Judge Scott was appointed by Governor Perry to replace Judge Layne Walker who retired a full 11 months before the end of his term. During her short term, Judge Scott helped cut the County’s backlog of cases from 500 to 250 cases all while giving birth to a newborn mid-term and continuing to chase around a 3 year old.
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