The Diary of an Overworked GC

One Fictitious GC (General Counsel) Vents

[Note: This article is not about the present economic uncertainty the world faces especially in the USA, although this is a huge consideration. It is not about the incursion of #AI into our large corporate operations, displacing them, although this is real too. And there are many new things, actually, which can be done through this new tech. But if anything, these two forces amplify the concerns expressed herein.]

Having worked over the years for and alongside General Counsels (GCs) of companies small and large, the following learnings have been gleaned over time from their common experience. Perhaps this experience speaks to that of many GCs.

“It wasn’t this way when I was hired in this role. In some ways, it was better. In some ways it was worse.”

“The files were a total mess. My predecessor had gotten in too much ‘over his skis’ with agreements with too many firms. Many were only lightly supervised, and so generated tens and hundreds of thousands in legal fees which sometimes were only sent to accounts payable with a later courtesy copy to him, which he rarely reviewed. He was overwhelmed and at some point, did not care anymore.”

“Our inside legal team was stressed, overworked, and surly as a matter of fact. Many had threatened to quit already.”

“When my predecessor had been confronted about the massive Legal overspend, he immediately demanded that everyone in Legal work overtime and weekends and evenings. In his view, more of the legal needed to be transitioned to them, as a way of lowering the overall outside legal spend.”

“Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. Dealing with overwork, inside legal began to rely MORE upon outside legal, asking them to ‘pinch hit’ on various initiatives which they were very happy to do, and that caused the legal spend to go up at a time the GC was trying to get things under control.”

“He basically lost it in that meeting over the summer when he was confronted with the Second Quarterly Financials including the high legal spend. He had called each of his partner contacts at the seven firms that the company had working for us. He literally begged them to ‘please tone down the billing.’”

“In the end it was part his quitting and part his being fired. The implication was that his work ended up being too expensive (and too inefficient) overall for the company’s bottom line. The implication also was that he was not doing enough internally and relying on outside spend too much. Yet I know that guy was working every weekend just to try to catch up. And he never caught up.”

“There were good things when I came here. We had the very best relationships with the top attorneys in each field – real superstar lawyers, celebrities – in IP, corporate, labor and HR, technology, litigation, compliance and the ‘junior firms’ which we sometimes used (though it seemed we always did but for low level projects.”

“For the company’s prestige, this was great. Our owners and executives appreciated the top spots at annual golf tournaments, charitable events, and other law firm sponsored events. Our CEO played in a foursome with two celebrities and our partner representative at that leading tournament.”

“And we had the assurance that no one would dare mess with our company. They would not ever want to run afoul of the best lawyers in the business. One served as Trade Secretary, for crying out loud.”

“It’s been five years since I have been in this role as company GC. We made tremendous strides right away to right the ship of our legal spend. We recruited two of the best from our competition’s legal department which was a big coup. We hired a Harvard Law graduate to be my deputy.”

“Ultimately, unfortunately, she did not stay more than six months. We were fine with it as she was going with one of our partner firms. It was a great move for her and then we would have one of ‘our people’ on the inside.”

“Yet we were surprised when the bill at that firm began to creep upwards precipitously. She explained to our management the necessity of doing thus and so, and so my hands were tied.”

“A new suit from a disgruntled company ex-executive caused us to reach out to seek a new relationship with a new Super Lawyer. Our go-to was unfortunately conflicted out. But they provided us ‘background guidance’ still in accord with their agreement to serve the company in a separate silo.”

“And, actually, five years later our legal spend has increased, yes. However, inflation and the interest rates have caused everything to creep upward. We have brand new regulatory requirements not. And we are still dealing with that ex-executive claim, which litigation was recently joined by other two ex-employees. It’s a mess.”

“Gone are the days, largely, of the in-person meetings and golf tournaments. It seems that, despite what they tell me about technology assisting corporate legal, that now I am more compressed than ever when one considers onboarding and all the SLAs and change orders based on software and company updates.”

“Actually, really, I feel like my predecessor now. I regret having given that guy such a hard time. I didn’t realize what a victim of circumstance he was in that role he was in. I just wish there would be a more effective way to manage all of this.”

Signed,

Overworked GC

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