Academic, author and McKinsey advisor Steven MacGregor founded the General Counsel Wellbeing Network in 2024 to help senior in-house lawyers manage high-pressure careers while sustaining performance and healthy team and organisational cultures.
The network is is nominated for Mental Health & Wellbeing Initiative of the Year at the Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2026, which will take place at the Intercontinental London Park Lane next Thursday (30 April).
He spoke to Legal Business about the pressures of heavy workloads, the isolation that can be experienced by in-house lawyers, and the impact of technology and AI-driven change on their roles.
Why did you decide to launch the General Counsel Wellbeing Network?
I’ve been working in the space of strategic wellbeing, performance, and positive culture for close to two decades. But I felt that the legal sector was an example of an extreme use case. With a lot of these issues – technology disruption, workload overwhelm and mental health, and how that links to ways of working – I felt that I could make a difference and help these people out.
Why general counsel?
All lawyers are under significant pressure, but in-house lawyers often have an additional layer of pressure because they can be isolated within their organisation.
If we want to build a successful network, then you have two main sources of potential value. You have the content regarding the tools and methods of wellbeing, performance, culture, and ways of working. Then you’ve also got the peer-to-peer support, and you put both elements together, and it creates a real potent mix that can actually move the needle on change.
Moving towards sustainable behavioural change is a huge step. Most of my work in the last 10 years has been focused on looking at building habits and how that links to the aggregate level and actually changing the culture within an organisation.
What are some of the unique problems that GCs face?
On one level, the sheer volume of work and not having space to breathe or recover. On another, the huge levels of uncertainty in terms of technology disruption, AI and how they deal with that, and even job insecurity. The third big one is isolation – being viewed as a blocker within an organisation, which can mean they don’t feel they can connect on a human level with people in their own organisation. These three things often combine on a ‘nervous system’ level which can impact deeply on their personal and professional lives.
What does the network offer GCs, and how does it work?
Principally, it’s a year-long leadership curriculum, comprised of a workshop and a webinar once per quarter. The workshops are two-hour content sessions, with an hour before and after for networking. We look at different themes in all eight sessions throughout the year, and also have an ongoing touchpoint via WhatsApp groups.
What we try to create when we have the workshops is that we close the door, and there’s no photographs and no recording. You see the shoulders coming down, people can breathe, and it’s that safe space that they can share with their peers and learn about being a more effective leader.
How does collaboration with law firms play into this?
Pinsent Masons is currently the main sponsor for the UK, and they have also extended that to the Middle East. We have a number of relationships with law firms whereby they provide the support so that membership for senior in-house counsel is free.
We’re very clear with the firms that there has to be a real cultural alignment in terms of values and how they work. And where we have the presence of the firms, we don’t have 10 partners trying to build relationships in the room. We have a very low ratio of partners, and it is with a stipulation that these folks are also part of the journey, so that they are invested in the learning. They’re just being as vulnerable as any of the other participants, and they’re fully on board with what we’re trying to do.
What are the goals of the network?
At the end of the day, it’s about leadership performance, and it’s specifically performance under pressure. A lot of people see the word ‘wellbeing’, and they think that wellbeing is wellness. But wellbeing is not the same as wellness – wellness is something separate from work, and it also implies an element of fixing the damage that we do in work.
Wellbeing is different. It’s part of our daily lived experience, and it’s also tied to the business case. We legitimise wellbeing, and make it strategic, showing how it can be a performance lever.
The network isn’t reactive group therapy. It isn’t about a sticking plaster that tries to fix people after they’ve done the damage. We recognise that people might be under pressure, but we try to be more proactive with the root cause. And we try and not just have a coping mechanism, but re-engineer the way that they approach their work, and so we’re looking at changing ways of working. We’re looking at changing culture within the in-house legal profession, and we’re looking at allowing these people to elevate their performance. Health and wellbeing is a major element and we never lose track of how people get the job done.
Who does the network cater to?
Generally, we look at a minimum of 10 years’ post-qualification experience, and in a full-time role as a senior in-house counsel within an organisation. Those between roles are also very welcome.
How many members are currently part of the network?
We’re currently 500-plus globally, which includes 200 in the UK. I’m happy that it’s growing organically – it’s growing in the right way, and it’s growing with senior people. We are very precise on what we want. It’s in-house, and it’s very senior level, because that’s what we feel the content and the conversation is most suited to.
What’s next for the network?
Growth and consolidation of the different chapters, for one. The UK and Middle East chapters are growing strongly, with Spain, Ireland and Continental Europe also in development. We also have our first APAC event in Bangkok this week, with the idea being to establish a Singapore hub soon.
Content development is the other main area of development. We want to cater to the real needs of senior in-house counsel and in the next six weeks, we will start webinars delivered by the membership. So rather than me being a bottleneck or only me always delivering content, we’ll aim to activate the membership as content creators as well as consumers.
For more information on the Legal 500 UK ESG Awards, or to enquire about attending/sponsoring, please contact Kylie MacKenzie.
