What Really Should Be in General Counsel’s Skill Set
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A recent ALM article, “Sea Change in GC Role Requires New Competencies,” by E. Leigh Dance, got me thinking. I agree with Dance on the competencies required of a general counsel, except for one thing.
The article could have been written 30 years ago. The same skills have been required for a long time because some aspects of the general counsel’s responsibilities haven’t changed. But some have, and this is where some GCs need to focus to ensure that they have the appropriate skills for the job—in the 21st Century.
The best general counsels know what is going on in their company and in the law department. A GC who thinks that his or her job is just to advise the board and CEO, and can delegate everything else, is adopting a risky strategy. The GC is responsible for managing the legal risks facing the organization. While the CEO and the board may be the primary clients of the general counsel, it was never a good idea to say “I’ve got other people handling that area.” What does the GC say when he or she is surprised by a labor problem, or an antitrust problem, or an e-discovery problem? “My people let me down?” This is guaranteed not to satisfy the CEO.
General counsel doesn’t need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of each area of responsibility, but should know enough to understand how major legal risks are being managed. As more processes in every function in every business—including the law department—are being automated, this means that the general counsel must understand the automation side of the business. No longer can the GC stick his head in the sand and say “I don’t understand that computer stuff.” Not having the basic knowledge of the automation tools that are used or could be used in the department is a throwback to the old days when computers were tended by the high priests of the systems department. Today, as several states have made clear in their ethical rules, it borders on malpractice.
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