General counsel are the most senior lawyers within internal teams and an increasingly crucial element within their companies. Their expertise spans commercial awareness, complex contract drafting, litigation management, managing legal resources, and implementing strong leadership and negotiation skills. They also possess an equally exceptional breadth of technical legal knowledge that benefits the company as a whole. GCs provide integral support to the daily workings of legal teams, overseeing cases, advising on key issues and identifying problems before they potentially spiral out of control. However, life has suddenly become more interesting for GCs as the ever-growing role of artificial intelligence is adding yet another layer of complexity to their workloads.
GCs have hitherto managed large workloads based on deep knowledge developed over years of experience. However, as AI and data and privacy considerations grow, GCs are facing issues that are new to everyone, coming with significant risk.
How much is AI really adding to GC plates?
One of the biggest reasons that AI is affecting the GC role is that it is intertwined with multiple considerations. Businesses are using AI to understand their website traction, to advertise their services to a more responsive audience, to calculate working time on tasks, to calculate their fraud risk... the list simply goes on. This means that not only are they grappling with the binary version of AI, that is in itself explicit, but they often are left to untangle the hidden web of AI, integrated in more traditional processes.
AI is constantly evolving, which is unlikely to end soon. Every day, systems are becoming more intelligent, more advanced, more capable. Teams of GCs may dedicate hours to understand one process for it to become obsolete. This adds additional work and stress upon the shoulders of GCs, as well as impacting their previous pace and success rate. This is ultimately unsustainable, and companies should look to put sufficient measures in place to adequately support their legal department.
The question of compensation
A recent survey conducted by Major, Lindsey & Africa found that, since 2021, total actual compensation (TAC) for in-house GCs has decreased by 4% globally. Although some firms are making up for the decline with additional benefits (such as bonuses and additional perks like flexible working patterns, healthcare and unique fringe benefits), this does make firms more vulnerable than before when it comes to potentially losing talent.
GCs are amongst the first to grapple with this new, unknown technology, and are dedicating the time and risk management in trying to tame this tool. As workloads continue to grow, it is important for companies to remember that their GCs must feel fairly remunerated, and this should be a key consideration for firms in this new age of AI.
The importance of support
Whilst compensation may be the most obvious point to consider, support and training should also be a key focus. Companies may benefit from offering additional training to GCs expected to take on AI heavy workloads or through seeking frequent advice from AI professionals that may be able to complement the expertise of their GCs. The more knowledge that GCs can harvest, the more indispensable they will become to the company, making this a valuable long-term investment.
Looking ahead
It is hard to predict for certain exactly what the future for GCs will hold, but it is inevitable that many will be looking to either reduce their workloads, or at least seek roles that offer the maximum amount of support and training available – not only helping their capacity but also developing their wider skills as well.
This is a pivotal moment for businesses; they should recognise that their GCs are working increasingly hard to grapple with AI for the benefit of the company and look to ensure this talent is developed and nurtured. Talent development in AI starts as the very top of the legal department and will be central to retaining top GC talent.
Jerry Temko is managing director, in-house counsel recruiting, Major, Lindsey & Africa
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