The report, entitled ‘Through the Looking Glass: How Corporate Leaders View the General Counsel of Today and Tomorrow’, draws on the perspectives of 34 business leaders, including chief executives and board members, about the role of legal leadership within their companies. The survey is the first time KPMG has asked business executives about their perspective on the GC role, rather than interviewing GCs themselves. ‘Instead of asking GCs to look in the mirror, we go through the looking glass to obtain a fresh perspective on this ever-changing, demanding position,’ the report says. Respondents were asked to highlight how GCs can best add business value now and in the future, as well as to predict the ways in which the GC role will change in the next five to ten years.
Going beyond legal
According to KPMG principal Juan Gonzalez, the role of general counsel must continue to expand and diversify if it is to truly become a value-adding role. ‘General counsel must be business leaders,’ he said, encouraging in-house lawyers to step up to the plate when it comes to risk management, business strategy and brand protection. The KPMG survey found that most executives want their GCs to take on leadership positions outside the legal department, including serving as board members, assisting in data security and breach preparedness, developing corporate social responsibility and feeding into overall business strategy. While it will often fall on the GC to ‘consider the risks the company hasn’t thought of’, looking to create opportunities rather than shut them down should be the overarching goal of any GC.
Embracing technology
Looking forward, GCs will need to develop a finessed understanding of the ways in which technology can impact their business if their advice is to remain strategically relevant to management. ‘The GC is often the interpreter for the board, required to decipher technical language into layman’s terms in order to ensure adequate consideration, at the highest level, of the risks and opportunities that technology brings,’ commented KPMG UK head of anti-bribery and corruption Annabel Reoch. ‘For this reason, as much as any other, GCs must embrace technology, not fear it.’ For the GC of the future, ‘embracing’ technology will take many forms – from understanding and mitigating cyber-based risks, to harnessing the power of technology to assist in legal processes like contract management, to assessing the legal risks associated with emerging (and thus imprecisely regulated) tech-based industries.
For the full report, please click here.
Sources: KPMG; Corporate Counsel
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