Shareholder activism is a growing threat, and it concerns not just board members, institutional shareholders and outside counsel, but in-house counsel, too.

Bass, Berry & Sims corporate attorney Howard Lamar advises clients specifically on these issues, and he said that, while a public company general counsel doesn't need to know the “nuts and bolts” details of handling an activist shareholder, they do need to know some simple corporate governance and management skills in case an activist comes their company's way.

That risk is a priority for many companies, according to a recent Bloomberg BNA analysis. The analysis said that “65 public companies cited 'shareholder activism' as a risk factor in SEC filings during the first six months of 2017, more than five times as many [as] during the same period three years ago.”