European general counsel rank the importance of emotional intelligence much higher than their U.S. counterparts, according to a study by ALM's Global Leaders in Law and Morrison & Foerster.

The global survey of 200 senior corporate counsel found 44% of Europe-based respondents cited emotional intelligence, problem-solving and creative thinking as the top three skills needed by the GC of the future, significantly higher than the global average of 28%.

Globally, the top three skills cited were judgement, legal skills and problem-solving.

When asked what challenges they think technology will help them solve in the future, 65% of Europe-based GCs cited document automation. This was a higher proportion than any other region and the global average of 51%.

The results also showed that the 'urgency bias' – reacting to immediate requests from the business versus prioritising the issues the GC strategically wants the team to deal with – is experienced by a higher proportion of Europe-based respondents (74%) than U.S. respondents (44%). The global average was 61%.