Insight Articles | 法務、規制関連、コンプライアンス

In April 2017 Egon Zehnder brought together a notable group of General Counsels and Legal/ Compliance Heads in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing GCs in Greater China. Several themes emerged during the roundtable events—themes that are relevant to any GCs in the region.

Board members today must grapple with increasingly complex matters of strategy and risk. In response, many companies are rethinking board meetings to enhance alignment, energize the board and elevate its performance.

Legacy organizations must respond – or risk their survival. While each organization will transform itself in a different way, each transformation is certain to have digital at its core, because digital is driving the changes in consumer expectations, markets and products.

What kinds of skills do general counsels need today? This article builds upon Egon Zehnder’s presentation at its Annual European General Counsel event in Paris on March 29 and 30, 2017.

What distinguishes an excellent general counsel from a good or merely acceptable one? To answer that question we recently mined information about more than 300 senior legal executives from among the thousands of management appraisals that we have conducted over the past several years.

For each issue of Experts we choose topics that we believe will be of great interest not only to General Counsels, but also to CEOs and Boards of Directors. Here, in Experts No. 3, we dive into the sensitive relationship between the General Counsel and the Board of Directors.

Ian Maurice of Egon Zehnder discusses the relation of General Counsel and Company Secretary and describes the UK trend to split the roles.

Besides filling the traditional role, today’s top legal officer has become a key resource for corporate boards.

Because the role of the General Counsel is rapidly evolving and gaining in importance, this issue of Experts focuses on the heart of what we do every day in our Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Practice Group: help organizations select the right person for the role of chief legal officer.

The powerful forces reshaping top corporate roles have also profoundly altered the position of General Counsel. It’s more complex, more demanding, and requires more leadership skill than ever.