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.
These range from industry-wide initiatives, such as collaborative (yes, really) efforts to tackle mental health and wellbeing, and address law’s woeful record on diversity and social mobility, to GCs helping guide their companies through dramatic upheavals in business models. Others have overhauled governance and approaches to ethics, particularly in the rising number of GCs now assuming sustainability briefs, while some have influenced policy and legal standards for all of society.
While it’s true the biggest and most influential buyers of legal services, such as Barclays and Shell, remain some of the most innovative and are at the forefront of much change, many profiled come from much smaller companies with tighter resources. What is common among all those driving change is that they are doing so over and above the day job, going that one step further to show creativity and leadership.
Unlike previous Powerlist editions, which celebrated the top individual UK GCs or best in-house teams, the 2020 report celebrates those specifically driving change and fresh thinking. This is clearly not an exact science and the case studies are by no means an exhaustive list – there were more than 150 nominations – and so inevitably some will have escaped our notice. But on the back of months of research across the Legal Business team, in particular from my colleagues Anna Cole-Bailey and Muna Abdi, we’re confident this list provides a credible cross-section of the GCs with progressive agendas.
Thankfully, there’s some cause for optimism following a decade in which, despite copious hype about professional innovation, not much changed for the legal industry. In-house counsel do have broader remits and power within their organisations, but with that comes increased responsibility to deliver change. Or, as Vodafone’s Rosemary Martin recently pondered as a topic for this year’s Enterprise GC conference: ‘What do you want to be famous for?’
Hamish McNicol is corporate counsel editor for Legal Business and The In-House Lawyer.