Appointments of general counsel at US Fortune 500 companies almost reached gender parity for the first time last year, a new study has found.

Russell Reynolds’ “Annual Fortune 500 General Counsel Report 2022” shows almost half (49%) of the 59 new hires into top legal roles were female in 2021. This is up from 42% in 2020 and is a significant increase on 2018, when only 28% of GC appointments were women.