What Does A General Counsel Do?

See what a general counsel does, from legal oversight and compliance to risk management, board support, and business strategy. Get a concise look at daily duties, core skills, and the right time for companies to hire one.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. General Counsel

3. A General Counsel’s Day: What does a general counsel do?

4. Competencies Required for a General Counsel

5. What Constitutes a Successful General Counsel?

6. When to employ a General Counsel

7. Measuring success in the position of general counsel

Introduction

As a corporation’s chief legal officer, the General Counsel or Chief Counsel serves as the board’s and shareholders’ principal attorney & primary legal advisor. The General Counsel’s role is to safeguard the company’s interests and shield it from functional legal risk, even though they often report straight to the CEO.

The General Counsel has evolved from a purely legal-focused role to a complicated one that blends business and strategy due to the growing fluidity of organizational functions in an unpredictable business climate. The duties of the general counsel have recently grown to include deeper integration with corporate issues and company leadership.

The present-day general counsel is an integral part of the upper management team and a business-critical manager in addition to being the head of legal.

General Counsel

A company’s legal department is led by its general counsel, sometimes referred to as “GC” or chief counsel. The general counsel position in a small company may have a wide range of responsibilities, including leading the legal team and advising other departments. “What does a general counsel do?” Simply put, they are the company’s top legal minds.

There may be multiple levels within the department in larger corporations, including additional roles like Vice President Legal, Deputy General Counsel, and In-house Counsel.

In these companies, the GC plays a higher leadership and supervisory function, managing the department and reporting directly to the board and CEO.

GCs are often licensed attorneys who have finished the state’s bar exam. Along with other state-specific credentials, they may also have passed the MBE (Multistate Bar Examination).

GCs usually hold specialized certifications in the business field of the organization because they are responsible for giving business-relevant guidance in law.

These could involve expert qualifications in the legal systems controlling gas and oil, biotech, mining, and consumer goods.

These days, it’s not uncommon to find a general counsel who also has business training and expertise.

In addition to or instead of working in one or more basic business functions, they may pursue an MBA to hone their business acumen.

A General Counsel’s Day: What does a general counsel do?

GCs begin their workday early, typically with a daily report on the most recent developments in legal areas that the organization is concerned about.

For example, they might:

Keep abreast with developments regarding proposed industry rules.
Examine regulatory authorities’ signals.
Examine how industry definitions of risk are changing.

To make sure the company presents a cohesive front against legal risk, have multiple meetings with worldwide offices to receive and provide notifications on various initiatives.

The State Bar Association states that a GC position typically entails:

The majority of the work is transactional, such as contract reviews and external discussions.
Board interactions
Compliance work

They keep themselves occupied by managing or responding to legal demands from many departments, including marketing, sales, finance, and human resources, as well as giving guidance as needed. A GC’s day as a part of the C-suite will mostly consist of interacting with executives and the CEO in order to offer a legal viewpoint on suggested corporate initiatives.

The GC’s daily responsibilities may affect all or many departments within the organization.

Successful GCs may be upgraded to chief issue solver. This could consist of:

Stamping out fires in the Human Resources department and avoiding developing issues in sales
Ensuring the legal compliance of marketing messages
Handling tax disputes
Managing legal emergencies
Supervising advocacy for public policy
Taking the initiative on matters of compliance

General Counsel is more than just an advisor, even though they are usually the C-suite’s voice of reason and law. It’s a collaborator’s as well.

GCs don’t write legal and procedural positions without any organizational or business context. Rather, the GC simultaneously serves as a lawyer and a businessperson, providing legal counsel that reduces legal risk and fosters positive organizational outcomes.

In reality, the GC may acknowledge that, despite the existence of a legal right, the firm might gain more from a gentle approach rather than a strict legalistic stance in situations when commercial realities dictate it. What sets a GC apart from outside counsel is its business-focused perspective.

The GC ought to be at ease taking a backseat and allowing others to take the lead, even though they naturally take the lead on legal issues related to the company. For instance, training outside counsel for specialized work may be one of the GC’s responsibilities during corporate litigation, capital funding rounds, or intricate M&A moves. While keeping an eye on the company’s interests from the sidelines, they ought to be able to allow others to take the floor.

If you’re still asking, “What does a general counsel do?” think of them as a mix of lawyer & business advisor.

Competencies Required for a General Counsel

General Counsels need to have a variety of qualities, including intelligence, strategic thinking, and superior judgment. GCs must also possess exceptional leadership abilities and be able to handle numerous difficult issues at once.

Additionally, GCs need to be visionary, diligent, and capable of motivating others. In addition to handling the company’s legal problems and rulings, they must be able to foresee future legal risks and difficulties. The top GCs are also adept at managing multiple tasks concurrently.

Successful general counsels are in high demand due to their remarkable combination of qualities. Additionally, GCs must have the following qualities:

Honesty
The capacity for intuitive reasoning
The ability to gain knowledge from experience
Excellent communication abilities
Wide-ranging legal knowledge
Outstanding judgment
The capacity to fairly evaluate numerous options

What Constitutes a Successful General Counsel?

Keeping up with new regulations that could affect the business and the industry as a whole is one of the most vital components of a general counsel’s responsibilities.

For instance, if Congress establishes new rules pertaining to technology and privacy, the general counsel of an IT company will pay attention. The GC would carry out a study and report their results to the CEO of the company if they believed that the new legislation would have an effect on the business.

Attendance at board, committee, and regular human resources meetings is required of the general counsel. GCs are responsible for monitoring not only corporate and boardroom decisions, but also those made by the human resources department. When it comes to employee relations, the human resources department often calls for legal advice, particularly when hiring and firing staff.

In summary, general counsels handle a wide range of business duties, such as offering advice and information on public policy, corporate citizenship, ethics, legislation, and more. Because of this, one of the most essential staff members of a company is an outstanding general counsel.

When to employ a General Counsel

Many CEOs begin bringing counsel in-house once outside counsel costs start to skyrocket. Most of the time, hiring a general counsel also signifies the transition from working with an external party focused on execution to collaborating with a strategically focused executive who can assist in molding the business.

“What does a general counsel do?” This is quite a common question. Nevertheless, compared to other executive hires, the reasons for employing a general counsel rely more on the nature, size, and complexities of your business:

When client contract negotiations pick up speed or customer & business development partnerships get more sophisticated and strategic, you’ll probably need a general counsel if you manage an enterprise business. For example, you should consult with a general counsel who can assist you in closing deals with big corporations and make sure the conditions are beneficial to your business over time.
Employing a general counsel at an early stage will help businesses that depend on patent holdings as a key differentiation in their products to integrate that approach into their strategy.
A general counsel can assist in directing and coordinating legal duties across nations if a major component of your plan entails worldwide expansion. For example, you’ll have to manage additional legal concerns linked to compliance and human resources if you’ve achieved a sufficient number of staff members outside the US. Additionally, some nations have stricter regulatory frameworks than others. For instance, laws about data privacy may be more stringent in European nations, while they may be less stringent in other sectors, like cryptocurrency.
With the goal to effectively prepare the firm’s governance & legal functions to function as a public company, you need to have a seasoned general counsel on the executive team by no later than the funding round before filing if you are planning an IPO.
Your business’s strategy will be closely linked to legal, compliance, and regulatory issues, so it’s likely that you’ll want to hire a general counsel much earlier in the company’s life cycle if you’re building in a highly scrutinized sector like fintech, biotech, crypto, defense, space, or in a new and rapidly developing sector like AI.

Measuring success in the position of general counsel

The General Counsel can be held accountable and positioned for success by creating a 90-day strategy with measurable results.

A competent general counsel will also be able to assign KPIs to the position and operate in a data-driven manner. For instance, what are the agreement turnaround times for business teams? In a month, how many legal questions or concerns were answered? What is the legal team’s internal NPS?

This eliminates subjectivity and enables colleagues to evaluate the efficacy of the legal role objectively, which is essential.

An exciting phase in a company’s life is recruiting a general counsel to develop and grow the legal function. You can make sure the GC gets started right away and adds value to the larger company by knowing what you require from a legal executive, what they can provide, and how to gauge success.

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3,190

What Does A General Counsel Do?

Introduction

General Counsel

A General Counsel’s Day: What does a general counsel do?

Competencies Required for a General Counsel

What Constitutes a Successful General Counsel?

When to employ a General Counsel

Measuring success in the position of general counsel

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