Corporate risk radar 2024 – Part 3: The evolving role of General Counsel in an age of polycrisis

GCs are now at the forefront of managing an increasingly complex risk landscape, where their responsibilities extend far beyond traditional legal expertise. In 2024, they face four major challenges: economic volatility, regulatory complexity, talent management, and geopolitical instability. Additionally, AI is gradually emerging as an operational challenge.

The 2024 data reveals both continuity and significant shifts in the factors driving change in the GC role. 'Specific legal and regulatory developments' remains the primary driver of change, maintaining its top position from previous years. This reflects the enduring core responsibility of in-house legal teams to navigate the increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

The 'ability to leverage new technologies (including AI) to redesign processes and workflows' has risen dramatically from sixth (2023) to second (2024) place. It is the second most important change driver overall, with 53% of respondents highlighting its importance (significantly up from 28% in 2023).

However, the board seems to be the biggest driver in this change in perception; with 76% of board members seeing it as crucial compared to only 38% of General Counsels (GCs). This suggests that GCs are more focused on immediate regulatory issues and may not view the demand for technological transformation with the same urgency as their boards.

"Cost pressures requiring improved efficiency" remains the third most important change driver, cited by 33% of respondents, with 45% of GCs feeling this pressure, highlighting the challenge to achieve more with limited budgets. GCs experience this more acutely than board members and the C-Suite (24% and 35%, respectively). Additionally, 29% of GCs emphasise "Ability to unbundle and outsource legal services" as a priority, reflecting a focus on resource optimisation and agility. The "Agility deficit" is further explored in Part Two.

Top factors driving change in the GC role

GCs rate highly as trusted advisors to executives and boards, the most valued aspect of their role across all groups, reflecting strong performance amid recent challenges. "Aligning the legal function to business strategy" is the second priority, rated higher by GCs (94%) than board members (74%), showing GCs’ focus on supporting broader objectives.

Important aspects of the GC role

Attributes shown in descending order of importance.

% rating 4 or 5 on scale where 1= Inadequate performance and 5 = Outstanding performance

'Proactively assessing the risk landscape' and 'Horizon scanning to pre-empt issues' are both rated highly by GCs (74% and 81% respectively), indicating a strong focus on anticipatory risk management. 

These aspects will undoubtedly remain a crucial part of the GC role as businesses continue to grapple with a polycrisis of risk. In light of this, GCs have the potential to become key players in continued business success and growth. 

Board and GC perspectives on the key aspects of the board’s role remain aligned. There is clear consistency in the hierarchy of importance, with strong consensus that ‘Ensuring good governance and robust decision-making’ is the most important job of the board.

% identifying activity as the main element of the Board's role

Board perception of GC performance remains steady, though slightly lower, with 58% rating GCs as performing "very" or "extremely" well, down from 68% in 2023 but still up from 50% in 2022. GC perceptions of their own functions' performance remains high, with 83% rating their function highly, consistent with 84% in 2023, which was a major increase from 49% in 2022. This reflects growing GC confidence and resilience in managing complex risks, demonstrating their readiness to tackle upcoming challenges.

To what extent do you think General Counsel in your organisation are meeting Board requirements?

The study also assessed how well teams are equipped to meet board requirements. This reveals a generally positive outlook, with 72% of GCs saying their teams are well-equipped, and board respondents providing a similar score (73%). C-Suite executives are somewhat lower at 64%.

Responsibility for identifying and managing risk

Risk management across organisations is integrated and collaborative, with strong involvement from leadership, management, and specialist functions. Risk identification and management are shared responsibilities, with the board playing a key role in identification (88%) but less in direct management (67%), reflecting its oversight focus.

While the board sees the GC’s role in legal risk identification as limited (46%), GCs themselves report a higher involvement (84%), suggesting a need for clearer communication as GCs expand their influence as strategic advisors.

Executive and senior management are key contributors, with 93% of respondents affirming their role in risk identification and 89% in management. Specialist functions—including Legal, Risk, and Compliance—are viewed similarly responsible for both aspects, while Audit is seen as more involved in identification (65%) than management (42%).
 

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225 responses (215 online and 10 qualitative) with senior business leaders (our largest sample to date)

• 81 Board members and CEOs
• 72 General Counsel (GCs) and Heads of Legal
• 72 senior C-Suite executives (including CFOs, CIOs, COOs and CROs).

The organisations we have consulted have a genuine global footprint, with over a third headquartered outside the UK (Europe 10%, Asia-Pacific 10%, North America 6%, Africa 7% and Middle East 4%) and with operations and individual professional responsibility at a global level (see table below).
 

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