Keeping up with evolving business and regulatory landscape

Being a part of your company’s broader business team is one of the fundamental components of the evolving role of general counsel (GC). Companies today turn to their GC not only for guidance regarding laws and regulations impacting business decisions, but also for business strategy itself.

The global business environment is becoming ever more complex, and law department leaders are increasingly playing an important role in high-stakes boardroom conversations that shape their company’s future. Ninety-seven percent of chief legal officers (CLOs) have reported that their company’s executive team almost always, or sometimes, seeks their input on business decisions, according to the ACC CLO 2017 Survey. Additionally, a large portion of CLOs regularly attend board of directors meetings and meet with other business leaders throughout the company to discuss operations and risk areas.

Many multinational corporations conduct business in emerging markets, which presents both challenges and opportunities as they grapple with unfamiliar cultures and laws. Regulatory or government changes ranked second on the 2017 ACC list of top issues keeping CLOs and GCs up at night in the year ahead. And as new rules and regulations are continually enacted, corporate counsel around the world are required to maintain a keen focus on which changes affect their daily practice of law and their company’s business functions.

Veta T. Richardson is president and chief executive officer of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC). Deon Wong is senior legal and advocacy counsel of ACC Australia and Asia Pacific. The association has an international membership of more than 42,000 in-house lawyers at more than 10,000 organizations in 85 countries, including 72 members in Hong Kong and 238 members in Singapore.