Welcome to our inaugural GC Power List: a collection of 100 of the most interesting and influential in-house lawyers in business today.
This report provides a snapshot of some of the most powerful legal advisers to companies across ten key business sectors. In compiling this report, we spoke to an array of leading law firms that specialise in each industry sector and canvassed the opinion of hundreds of partners. We have not ranked individuals in order of preference, or provided subjective views on ability, but simply identify ten lawyers in each sector that every private practice lawyer should know.
The industry sectors and the business structures of many of the general counsel and senior in-house advisers profiled here may be very different but many are united by common concerns, such as: ‘How do I ensure I offer a comprehensive service to my board?’; ‘How much of our legal work should I retain in-house?’; and, the perennial favourite: ‘How do I extract more value from our external legal advisers?’. Some thoughts on these key issues can be found on these pages, straight from some of the most experienced professionals. And private practice lawyers would do well to heed their words.
The role of the in-house lawyer has grown from taking a back seat to outside counsel to becoming the true powerbrokers in their respective fields.
Make no mistake: the profile of general counsel has improved significantly and irreversibly over the last decade. Individuals such as Mark Harding at Barclays have ensured that the in-house legal community has a voice and that voice is heard. There was a time when private practice lawyers looked down their noses at their in-house counterparts. The logic went that in-housers had swapped the fat fees of private practice for an easier life that would let them get home in time for tea. But not anymore. Over the past few years, the role of the in-house lawyer has grown from taking a back seat to outside counsel to becoming the true powerbrokers in their respective fields.
In In-house survey we reported that in-house lawyers are caught between a rock and a hard place. Legal budgets remain largely unchanged as finance directors keep a tighter hold on the purse strings, but at the same time workload has increased because companies have to face more and more regulatory and compliance issues.
As a result, GCs definitely have to be more proactive in managing their business and demanding more bang for their buck from their law firms. Meet the individuals that can balance those conflicting demands better than most.
Use the categories in the table on the left to navigate through the GC Powerlist by industry sector.