Page 127 - MASTER COPY LEADERS BOOK 9editedJKK (24)_Neat
P. 127
Leaders in Legal Business
With strategic input increasing in prominence and necessity, future general counsel would be wise to
develop strategic thinking skills. To do this, however, they need to be comfortable with risk and with helping their
business colleagues decide which risks are reasonable and which are not. And yet, GCs cannot just focus on risks
and constraints, as they also need to define and embrace opportunities. They participate in conversations about
strategic choices, both as lawyers and as general managers who are trained in the law.
Important skills that future general counsel will need to develop to become effective strategists include a
broad worldview, an ability to network and generate ideas with people from diverse perspectives, and the ability
to focus on the longer-term impact of decisions.
As general counsel move from being traditional legal advisors to corporate strategists, they increasingly
play a more meaningful role in executive and boardroom conversations. In doing so, future general counsel may
help their organizations adapt to faster-moving environments by using their mediation skills and insight across
the business to bring diverse perspectives together to help solve challenging business problems. When combined
with general counsel’s more traditional focus on risk, GCs in the role of integrator can also help drive
organizational innovation and renewal. Integrator GCs can broker disparate pieces of information across
organizational silos, and then assist the executive team in setting up a culture where measured risk in the pursuit
of new ideas is encouraged and nurtured.
Additional research confirms that CLOs would prefer spending the majority of their time advising
executives, participating in strategic corporate issues, and assisting with strategy development and execution.
However, when broken out by gender, more women than men would prefer to work on compliance issues (16
percent versus 13 percent, respectively) whereas men would focus on government affairs and managing legal
function domestically.
Figure 5
Given the choice, on what matters would you prefer to spend the majority of your time as CLO? (check
up to three options)
2013 2014 2015
81% 69%
Advising executives/participating in strategic 80%
corporate issues 11% 2%
Attracting and retaining good paralegal and 6% 19% 6%
support staff N/A 9%
Attracting and retaining good in-house counsel 20% 54% 27%
Managing outside counsel N/A 32% 14%
Board and governance issues 56% N/A 4%
Compliance 31%
Company/corporate secretarial matters N/A 17% 7%
11% 5%
Government affairs 17% N/A <1%
Litigation and class action 13% 21% 3%
Prosecution and government enforcement N/A 43% 20%
Controlling legal costs N/A 27% 15%
Managing legal function domestically 42% 5% 1%
Managing legal function internationally 27%
Regulatory investigation 6%
120
With strategic input increasing in prominence and necessity, future general counsel would be wise to
develop strategic thinking skills. To do this, however, they need to be comfortable with risk and with helping their
business colleagues decide which risks are reasonable and which are not. And yet, GCs cannot just focus on risks
and constraints, as they also need to define and embrace opportunities. They participate in conversations about
strategic choices, both as lawyers and as general managers who are trained in the law.
Important skills that future general counsel will need to develop to become effective strategists include a
broad worldview, an ability to network and generate ideas with people from diverse perspectives, and the ability
to focus on the longer-term impact of decisions.
As general counsel move from being traditional legal advisors to corporate strategists, they increasingly
play a more meaningful role in executive and boardroom conversations. In doing so, future general counsel may
help their organizations adapt to faster-moving environments by using their mediation skills and insight across
the business to bring diverse perspectives together to help solve challenging business problems. When combined
with general counsel’s more traditional focus on risk, GCs in the role of integrator can also help drive
organizational innovation and renewal. Integrator GCs can broker disparate pieces of information across
organizational silos, and then assist the executive team in setting up a culture where measured risk in the pursuit
of new ideas is encouraged and nurtured.
Additional research confirms that CLOs would prefer spending the majority of their time advising
executives, participating in strategic corporate issues, and assisting with strategy development and execution.
However, when broken out by gender, more women than men would prefer to work on compliance issues (16
percent versus 13 percent, respectively) whereas men would focus on government affairs and managing legal
function domestically.
Figure 5
Given the choice, on what matters would you prefer to spend the majority of your time as CLO? (check
up to three options)
2013 2014 2015
81% 69%
Advising executives/participating in strategic 80%
corporate issues 11% 2%
Attracting and retaining good paralegal and 6% 19% 6%
support staff N/A 9%
Attracting and retaining good in-house counsel 20% 54% 27%
Managing outside counsel N/A 32% 14%
Board and governance issues 56% N/A 4%
Compliance 31%
Company/corporate secretarial matters N/A 17% 7%
11% 5%
Government affairs 17% N/A <1%
Litigation and class action 13% 21% 3%
Prosecution and government enforcement N/A 43% 20%
Controlling legal costs N/A 27% 15%
Managing legal function domestically 42% 5% 1%
Managing legal function internationally 27%
Regulatory investigation 6%
120
