Reflections from The Economist GC Summit 2024

The role of the General Counsel (GC) has evolved far beyond traditional legal oversight. GCs are now at the heart of driving corporate strategy, managing risks, and guiding their organisations through crises, digital transformation, and sustainability challenges. The Economist General Counsel Summit 2024 provided invaluable insights into the changing role of the GC, offering practical advice for those looking to lead through complexity and uncertainty.

This article summarises the key lessons from the summit across seven critical areas covered in the panel discussions: mental wellbeing, brand stewardship, crisis management, harnessing generative AI, sustainability, ESG leadership and future-proofing legal teams.

1. Making Mental Wellbeing a Priority

One of the key themes that emerged was the importance of mental wellbeing in the workplace. GCs are uniquely positioned to lead by example and create a culture where mental health is prioritised.

Key Insights:

• Foster Open Conversations: GCs should encourage their teams to discuss the impact of work on mental health. Asking simple questions like "Are you OK?" can help break the silence and open up vital conversations.
• Lead with Empathy: Collaboration, empathy, and passion are essential leadership qualities. GCs should cultivate these attributes, whether through training or personal development.
• Promote Work-Life Balance: Profitability measured solely by billable hours can hinder cultural change. In-house legal teams should plan for downtime after major transactions like M&As, and engage in open discussions with law firms to set boundaries for mental health and wellbeing.
• Legacy of Leadership: While GCs may not be responsible for the culture they inherit, they are responsible for the legacy they leave. Creating a healthy work environment should be part of this legacy.

Credit to panellists: Vicki Bradin, Aniela Foster-Turner & Fiona Scattergood

2. From Legal Guardianship to Brand Stewardship

The role of the GC is increasingly seen as not just protecting the company from legal risks but actively managing and enhancing the company’s brand and reputation.

Key Insights:

• Focus on Brand Protection: While brand strategy is crucial, GCs are primarily tasked with protecting the brand through sound legal advice and decision-making.
• Enable Strategic Decisions: GCs must act as enablers, helping businesses overcome decision paralysis by offering timely, strategic legal counsel.
• Alignment with Business Strategy: The legal function should be closely aligned with the business. GCs should ensure that their teams understand not just legal issues but also commercial and strategic goals.
• Build Strong Relationships: For GCs to effectively drive value, they must have strong relationships with key stakeholders, including the CEO, board chair, and CMO. This alignment enables quicker decision-making in brand strategy.

Credit to panellists: Sumeet Seam, Alison Malin Zoellner, Simon Croxford & Saqib Alam

3. Leading Through Crisis: The GC’s Role in Crisis Management

GCs are central to navigating crises, ensuring that their organisations remain resilient and well-prepared to manage unexpected events.

Key Insights:

• Proactive Risk Management: GCs need to be able to identify emerging risks early. It’s vital not to wait for an invitation to advise the board—anticipating issues before they escalate is key.
• Learning from Past Crises: Effective crisis management requires discipline. GCs must ensure that lessons are learned from past events and incorporated into future risk management plans.
• Prepare for the Unexpected: GCs should focus on preparing for potential crises that may not yet be on the radar. Building a robust crisis management framework, including a dedicated response team, is crucial.
• Use Your Network: In times of crisis, GCs should leverage their professional network, take time to formulate a clear plan, and empower teams to take action.

Credit to panellists: Mark Gregory, Chris Bulger, Lars Faeste & Nadiya Bilous

4. GenAI: Building Trust in Technology

The rise of generative AI (GenAI) offers significant opportunities and challenges for GCs. As technology rapidly evolves, the role of the GC in ensuring ethical, legal, and practical applications of AI becomes increasingly important.

Key Insights:

• Reinvent Legal Operations: GenAI presents an opportunity to revolutionise legal operations. By automating routine tasks, GCs can drive efficiency and focus on higher-value activities.
• Embrace New Legal Challenges: GenAI will create new legal questions around data usage, intellectual property, and ethics. GCs should be proactive in understanding and managing these emerging issues.
• Transform Business at Pace: While the opportunity to implement GenAI is now, the challenge is in scaling these technologies across the business at speed while ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory regimes.
• Shared Responsibility: Implementing GenAI is not solely the responsibility of the legal team. It should be a company-wide initiative, with GCs leading the way in ensuring that the right balance between innovation and risk management is struck.

Credit to panellists: Penny Dudley, Rushad Abadan & Varun Mehta

5. Implementing Sustainability: The GC Perspective

Sustainability is no longer a "nice-to-have" but a fundamental aspect of corporate strategy. GCs have a pivotal role in guiding their organisations through the complexities of sustainability, compliance, and reporting.

Key Insights:

• Champion Sustainability: GCs are often already involved in sustainability initiatives, as they are skilled at managing ambiguity and navigating complex compliance landscapes.
• Craft the Sustainability Narrative: While data is crucial, the ability to tell a compelling sustainability story is equally important. GCs should help craft this narrative to resonate with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Sustainability initiatives require cross-functional collaboration. GCs should engage with various departments to align the company’s sustainability strategy with regulatory requirements and business goals.
• Engage Stakeholders: Whether you’re appealing to employees’ values or to the financial interests of investors, GCs should ensure they’re addressing sustainability from multiple angles.

Credit to panellists: Adam Woodhall, Rob Beard, Louise Waldek, Sinead Murray & Omiyinka Doris

6. ESG and Responsible Leadership

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) concerns have shifted from being peripheral to central business issues. GCs must lead the way in embedding ESG principles into every aspect of the organisation.

Key Insights:

• Proactive Leadership in ESG: The GC’s role in ESG has shifted from being reactive to proactive. GCs must lead on ESG issues, driving strategy and ensuring accountability across the business.
• Translate ESG into Action: It’s not enough to understand ESG issues in theory; GCs need to interpret them and translate them into actionable practices across the company.
• Competitive Advantage: ESG is no longer just an ethical or philosophical concern—it is now a business imperative. Companies that integrate ESG principles effectively will be better positioned in competitive markets.

Credit to panellists: Georgia Magno, Lance Bartholomeusz, Jane Murray & Ben Stansfield

7. Preparing for Tomorrow, Today

With geopolitical uncertainty, technological disruption, and environmental crises on the horizon, GCs must future-proof their legal teams to navigate an unpredictable world.

Key Insights:

• Anticipate Black Swan Events: GCs should anticipate unlikely but high-impact events—such as political instability or pandemics—and prepare their organisations accordingly.
• Develop Legal Team Resilience: In uncertain times, building resilience within legal teams is critical. GCs should place talented younger lawyers in challenging roles to build bench strength for future crises.
• Focus on High-Impact Risks: GCs should focus on scenarios that could have the most significant impact on the business—such as data breaches or trade restrictions—and prepare their teams to handle these challenges.

Credit to panellists: Kandarp Thakar, Margot Fransen & Henry Gardener

The role of the General Counsel is evolving, and today’s leaders must be ready to tackle a wide range of challenges. If you’d like to have a conversation about how your legal function can drive value, resilience, and long-term success please do get in touch with;

• Financial Services & Banking: Nikki Newton
• Corporate & Commercial: Georgia Morgan-Wynne
• Global: Sarah Ingwersen