HP general counsel Kim Rivera. Credit: Jeff Singer The role of general counsel has evolved to the point now where they have "the access, influence, power and resources" to advance social justice causes, Kim Rivera, chief legal officer and general counsel of HP Inc., said Friday at a Harvard Law School bicentennial event. "When I was in law school, if you cared about social justice and equality, general counsel was not the role or place you thought to go, said Rivera, a 1994 Harvard law graduate. "That has changed because general counsels are at the intersection of these issues." During a panel discussion titled "In-House Revolution,” Rivera and general counsels Horacio Gutierrez of Spotify, Deirdre Stanley of Thomson Reuters and Laura Stein of The Clorox Co., said encouraging their legal teams and the law firms with whom they work to get involved in social justice issues is "the right thing to do." In today's environment, domestic and internationally, "lots of groups with causes are trying to get companies to weigh in," Stein said. "Often general counsels and CEOs, being thoughtful, think about the company and what makes the most sense and for what reason. It's a fascinating part of our jobs. We're the ones often meeting with NGOs, and thinking about whether this [is] something we should weigh in on or not." Many major U.S. companies—through their general counsels and HR chiefs —have joined together to press challenges to the Trump administration's immigration policies, for instance, and others are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt broad protections for LGBT employees in the workplace. Besides influence in attacking social justice issues, the four addressed their own efforts at achieving diverse legal teams and driving diversity at the law firms that handle their outside work. More and more general counsels are pushing diversity among corporate ranks and at the U.S. law firms with which they do business. HP made headlines this year when the company said it withholds invoiced fees from firms that do not meet certain diversity requirements. Rivera said her company had a specific set of plans for creating the most diverse board in technology. Today it has almost 50 percent women and minorities "and sacrificed nothing." When she began as general counsel, she asked her team how to continue diversity not only in tech but in the legal profession. The team, she said, told her to put a "financial stake in the ground." "I sent a letter to firms on why diversity and inclusion matters to us," she recalled. "I said, 'If you want to work with us, this is the condition. Give us partners and teams staffed with women and minorities and if you don't, we'll withhold 10 percent of your fees until you comply.' We didn't lose anybody." The “in-house” revolution also pertains to how new technology is revamping old ways of doing business. Spotify's Gutierrez, who joined the company from Microsoft Corp., said that the legal practice model is undergoing a "tectonic shift." "I think it's reaching the point where our use of AI and business models, combined with the expansive role of in-house counsel, are reshaping law firm business,” he said. “That also has implications in terms of our hiring law school lawyers." Rivera said HP did one large acquisition where artificial intelligence and "soft bots" were used. "The world is not going to wait" for law schools and law firms to catch up, she said. Law schools are still teaching according to static fact patterns, said Stanley. "You master the pattern and get your 'A,'" she said. "In-house, we're creating the fact patterns ourselves." Read more: PepsiCo GC Tony West On Public Service, In-House Path Mandating Diversity, HP Will Withhold Fees From Some Firms HP General Counsel Offers Advice on Ensuring Gender Pay Equity Harvard Law, Dominant at the High Court, Will Host Six Justices