Legal Business

Editor’s note

It’s fair to say the research for this year’s GC Powerlist UK, where we once again shook up the format of our flagship annual in-house publication, met some initial resistance. Now in its eighth year, the 2020 edition sought to highlight general counsel (GCs) and legal teams making a major contribution to positive change or transformation, either at an industry or sector level: hence this year’s title, The Change Agenda.

And after months of research and more than 100 interviews, that early cynicism looks excessive. Hoary claims that change will only happen in law when clients demand it and that UK legal chiefs have achieved greater internal clout have moved from platitude to substance, even if such progressive attitudes remain, like the future, unevenly distributed. And the 50 case studies amassed in this year’s Powerlist give a good indication of where that future of the in-house profession is currently amassing.