Focus on how the role of the general counsel has changed

As I see it, increasing global and local challenges have given global counsel a unique opportunity to contribute to companies much more than ever previously. The traditional approach to the global counsel role was limited to litigation, contract negotiation and managing external law firms. These responsibilities are still an important part of the global counsel’s role, however, the complexities of regulations in place, as well as those that are under discussion (no better example than Chile discussing a new constitution), have provided global counsel the possibility to expand their importance in the strategic decisions that needs to be taken by a company. A skillful global counsel can be a key player for the company if they are able to properly interact with the different areas, all of which will necessarily have a legal or strategic concern. Global counsel must position themself as a partner in advising. Does this mean that the general counsel needs always to agree with all that the other areas of the company want to do? Of course, the answer is no. That would be a blatant negligence on global counsel’s role and a fatal flaw for the company. A global counsel’s approach to the other areas should consider a permanent disposition to learn from them, considering not only how they have addressed the issue in the past, but how they plan to solve it now and starting from there jointly analyse if the solution is still viable or if needs to be adjusted for regulatory or other reasons. In doing so, it is indispensable that global counsel does not hesitate in making clear that some solutions are not available for legal, reputational, or ethical reasons, but at the same time are relevant to provide well-grounded explanations to avoid that global counsel is since arbitrary, and as a result, not being consulted again with the consequential risk for the company. In the long term, there is no doubt that stopping executives from taking wrong decisions is much more relevant for the wellbeing of an entity than the short run benefits, and to be effective in that task we need that our workmates trust and respect our judgement despite how many times we do not agree with them.