Over the Horizon: How Corporate Counsel Are Crossing Frontiers to Address New Challenges 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges KPMG INTERNATIONAL Contents Foreword KPMG has been offering insights into the role of 01 General Counsel for many years. General Counsel 02 Interviewees for this report are located around the world. A world of complexity General Counsel operate at the nerve center of an organization. 05 Their role is to advise, control, regulate and communicate to different parts of the corporation. The inner circle 07 If the growing complexity of decision-making is handled adeptly, the GC can leverage the position into playing an important, even crucial, role in corporate decision-making. Managers of 09 enterprise risk Enterprise risk, which by definition can challenge the company in multifarious ways, is growing in breadth and complexity. Regulatory compliance Companies around the world have to comply with a 12 growing array of new regulations and more intrusive supervisory agencies. © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. Third-party risk The corporate risk of doing business with external parties is a 14 growing problem, especially as companies globalize and supply chains lengthen. Contract management The negotiation, drafting and execution of contracts has always been a central part of the corporate legal function, and the GC’s 16 role is changing in response to the growing complexity of formal business agreements. Dispute resolution Resolving disagreements with suppliers, customers and other 18 business partners is best done through negotiation – and if this fails, GC tend to take a flexible approach to dispute resolution. The cyber challenge The risk that seems to be growing fastest on GC’s radar screens is cyber security. 20 Future talents Given the widening role of the legal department, it is 21 logical that GC will want to hire and develop lawyers with a broad range of skills. Over the horizon More and more is being demanded of GC, at the same time as they are being provided with fewer resources. 22 © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. The study highlights some of the challenges GC face as a result of their broadening roles. © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. Foreword KPMG has been offering insights into the role of General Counsel for many years. In 2012, we published Beyond the Law, challenges GC were facing as a result of a global study of how General Counsel their broadening roles. The 2014 analysis (GC) are turning risk to advantage, which explores some of the themes that was based on a telephone survey of emerged from the 2012 survey to show GCs around the world. The 2014 analysis how GC are managing different kinds explores more fully some of the findings of risk and guiding corporate conduct. of the previous study and consists of The evidence gathered from these new in-depth interviews with GC and other interviews demonstrates how many senior counsel in Europe, North America GC are becoming increasingly involved and Asia-Pacific (see page-2). in matters that are not strictly legal, Kathryn Britten such as risk management and business The 2012 analysis found that GC were Global Head of strategy. As they continue this transition being called upon to play a more Legal Services Sector to a broader role, it is likely that even important role in how businesses more will be expected from GC by the operate and to move from being a pure Board and senior management. GC will legal counsellor to a business advisor. continue to rise to the challenge. The study highlighted some of the David Eastwood Global Head of Contract Compliance Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges 1 © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. General Counsel interviewed for this report 2 Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. General Counsel interviewed for this report Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges 3 © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. A growing proportion of GC’s work is not strictly involved in legal matters but in commercial decision making, especially in the area of risk management. 4 Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. A world of complexity GC operate at the nerve center of an organization. Their role is to anticipate, advise, control and communicate to different parts of the corporation. They are paid to discern the company’s • The complexity and type of disputes strengths and vulnerabilities and to that legal departments handle was try, as best they can, to forestall crises changing and this required a different before they occur. Effective GC have approach. always managed this role well, but • The increasingly cross-border nature in recent years, it has broadened far of laws and regulations was adding beyond narrowly defined legal matters new layers of risk. to encompass such things as risk, compliance, finance, regulation, Hr, and • Few legal departments had the business issues. kind of devolved structure that would facilitate GC and their teams In 2012, KPMG International conducted understanding their business a survey of 320 GC in 32 countries environment. which showed how the role of the GC is changing and the ways in which they The 2014 analysis delves more deeply are managing the transition. The survey into the difficulties and opportunities GC identified that the main challenge was face, by interviewing leading in-house the transformation of GC into business lawyers of large corporations around the decision-makers. “this transition requires world about the main concerns that were a shift in mindset and behavior from the highlighted in the 2012 survey. It finds GC as well as the wider organization, if the that a growing proportion of their work is value that GC can bring to the top table is not strictly involved in legal matters but in to be maximized,” the report said. Its main commercial decision making, especially findings included: in the area of risk management. As corporate Boards and senior executives • There was a gap between the impact ask for more from their GC — usually GC could make in the business and with fewer resources — they are likely their actual involvement in strategic to require greater numeracy skills and decision making. more business acumen. Finance and • Where GC have gained influence over accounting professionals tend to face a Board decisions, they have learned similar trajectory in the opposite direction: to present their legal knowledge in as they climb the corporate ladder, they commercial terms. are expected to apply their number- crunching abilities to more strategic • The increase in volume and decisions, probably picking up some complexity of regulation was deemed legal knowledge along the way. For both by many GC to be the single largest lawyers and accountants, companies are risk that their companies face, and becoming so intricate and elaborate that responsibility for compliance fell on these professionals have to broaden their the GC in most cases. expertise to keep up. Over the horizon: How corporate counsel are crossing frontiers to address new challenges 5 © 2014 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International provides no client services and is a Swiss entity with which the independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated. The GC in this study are from nine finely tuned, managing them becomes at Smiths Group PLC, a diversified industries (pharmaceuticals, energy, harder. According to Rob Putland, manufacturer headquartered in telecoms, technology, aerospace, Vice President and Associate General London that employs 23,000 people construction, transport, banking and Counsel at HP, “As senior in-house in more than 50 countries, makes this manufacturing) and are located in lawyers, we have the ability to take on comment: “the globalization of risk is so Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America. complex issues, distill them to key items important; we can’t look at things in the They operate in legal departments that and bring the different parties to align same old ways. Not only are the risks range in size from less than 20 to several on a sensible solution.” lawyers are bigger, but there’s a cultural piece to it. hundred (see pages 2 and 3). All of the trained to understand complicated areas The complexity of regulations and the interviewees spoke about the way they try of knowledge; they tend to excel at differences are so important to manage to balance risk and opportunity. Many felt communicating ideas in comprehensible that we lawyers have to have a global confident in their ability to be an enabler of terms. But in the future, they are likely view.” She adds, “the legal issues are good business decisions, not just to alert to have to present their thoughts in not country-specific.