Business-Success

Across corporate America, we see more and more companies giving their general counsels additional roles and responsibilities that have been traditionally held by others on the executive team.

What is driving this change? What does this evolution mean for young lawyers who aspire to the general counsel position? How will law firms and other service providers who traditionally serve GCs have to adapt?

While it is true that general counsels are increasingly concerned with regulation and compliance as well as data security, they are also increasingly taking on core business functions like communications, public and investor relations, government affairs, security, financial services, administration and human resources.

This “new” era of the general counsel has to have a global view of the company and see how each of these functions contributes to the company's overall strategy and bottom line.

At DSM North America, we embrace this model. Having worked for both a major law firm and in-house at plumbing and heating giant American Standard, I had broad experience when I joined DSM North America. Now, as president, general counsel and secretary I have brought that experience to bear working with executives across our business units and at our headquarters in the Netherlands to maximize the value of our company's shared services, including legal, government affairs, financial, communications and human resources (HR). My broad, generalist perspective helps me create professional service strategies and solutions that work across DSM's diverse business units.

Though the general counsel serves as the chief legal officer for a company, the most important aspect of the role—as the name suggests—is to counsel the executive team. This requires a broad understanding of the company's specific business as well as business generally. The general counsel must stay up to date on best practices and be able to offer insights into HR, administration, communications, compliance, accounting, real estate—in short, the functions that serve as the backbone for every corporation, regardless of its specific business line. To do the job well, general counsels can add value outside the legal department, making them natural choices for expanded roles within the C-Suite.

For aspiring general counsels, it is critical to use the early years of their careers to accumulate broad experience across core functions, even if that means shifting between industries. Interactions with different departments allow them to not only gain insight into the legal challenges specific to each function but also how they operate on a granular level.

In today's evolving C-Suite, general counsels are taking on a broader set of roles and responsibilities than ever before, allowing companies to maximize the value of their diverse and unique perspectives and experience. To be ready to seize this opportunity, we general counsels must continue to grow our skill sets and enhance our subject area expertise across all of the professional service functions.

Hugh Welsh is the president and general counsel of DSM North America.