Keywords: Calculations / Corrole / Isocorrole / Non-innocent ligands / Radicals / Transition metals DFT calculations indicate that the broad electronic-structural features of metalloisocorroles are rather similar to those of analogous metallocorroles. Thus, like their corrole analogues, many metalloisocorroles feature substantially non-innocent ligands. Another key point is that both corroles and isocorroles can exhibit at least two kinds of radical character, a 2 and b 1 . However, corrole and isocorrole derivatives also differ significantly in a few ways: for example, the S = 1/2 CoPh complexes of corrole and isocorrole exhibit ground states of different symmetries ( 2 AЈЈ and 2 AЈ, respectively, inCompared with the current explosion of research on corrole derivatives, [1] the chemistry of isocorrole derivatives has remained essentially unexplored since their initial synthesis and characterization by Vogel and co-workers in 1997.[2] In this context, we chose to map out the broad electronicstructural features of prototype isocorrole first-row transition-metal complexes, using density functional theory (PW91/TZP) calculations as the key tool.[3Ϫ7] While chiefly of interest to porphyrin chemists, we were gratified to find that the results impinge on a range of issues of broader interest. For example, we believe that the findings deepen our understanding of the electron distributions of high-valent transition-metal complexes and of the phenomenon of ligand non-innocence. Indirectly, the results also help place the electronic structures of high-valent heme protein intermediates in a broader chemical context. [8Ϫ12] Our results on Sc(IsoC), Ga(IsoC), Ni(IsoC), and Cu-(IsoC) (IsoC ϭ isocorrolato) as well as analogous results on the corresponding corrole [13] complexes provide a good starting point for our discussion. Table 1 presents selected adiabatic [14] ionization potentials and excitation energies for these complexes. The results show that the two lowest ionized states of Sc(IsoC) and Ga(IsoC) are almost degenerate, as they are for the analogous corrole derivatives, [13] which is clearly reminiscent of the behavior of porphyrin A 1u and A 2u radicals.[15] Figure 1 depicts the open-shell orbitals of [a]