Gone, baby, gone: the lawyer-board member: there was a time when more directors could turn to a peer on the board for expert counsel (and comfort) in navigating the legal terrain.

• Author: Kristie, James

A major finding in the data collection that Directors & Boards does on new executives elected to corporate boards is the quantum jump in the number of women being appointed to public company boards. In 2009, women represented 39% of the newly elected directors, a major ramping up from the 25% rate of recruitment in both 2008 and 2007. And this is a tripling from the 13% rate in 1994, which was the first year that we began our proprietary research into corporate board elections for a special feature in each edition of the journal called the Directors Roster.

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Here is another finding worthy of note: In that Directors Roster launch year of 1994, the percentage of lawyers taking a seat on corporate boards was 11%. Can you guess the percentage total in 2009? The answer: 1%. That is a major ramping down.

A smart aleck might chime in and say, "Gee, I am surprised it was so high." The common wisdom is, "Why would a lawyer choose to join an existing or potential client board? Why subject yourself to revenue-foreclosure possibilities for the firm, or risk being tripped up by the director independence rules or potential conflicts of interest?" Other issues come into play, too.

But as our Roster data suggest, there obviously was in governance days of old--not so old at that--a greater representation of lawyer-board members. One of my favorite anecdotes relating to the role lawyers played as board members was told to me by Raymond Troubh.

Regular readers of Directors & Boards will be familiar with Ray Troubh. He is one of our favorite authors--always chock full of important insights on board leadership and generous with his wise counsel on being a good director. Ray proudly wears the mantle of professional director. A graduate of Yale Law School, he came to corporate directorship first as a lawyer and then as a banker, before hanging out his shingle as a fulltime director.

The background in law was a valued asset he brought to his board work. We talked about that when I interviewed him for the "Oral History of Corporate Governance" that I did in 2001, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Directors & Boards. In reviewing his career trajectory from law school to the boardroom, here is a snippet of what he had to say:

"For board purposes the combination of my legal and investment banking experience was a...