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General Counsel Consulting Career Feature

More Regulation of General Counsels Expected

By Stony Olsen

With the continuing crisis in the financial markets, general counsels are not immune to the current calls for more regulation for just
about everything.

The National Law Journal is
reporting that many large
corporate failures, such as the
failures of Lehman Brothers,
Fannie Mae, and Washington
Mutual, have led to increased
expectations on the part of
general counsels regarding
oversight.
And it’s not just more oversight that’s expected. Massive
changes in company risk management are expected as well.
Greater state government regulations, federal oversight,
and more attorneys general probes are all anticipated.
position, it would be wise to bone up on regulatory and
statutory interpretation skills. Oversight work skills will also
be great to have.
But that’s not all. With risk avoidance a high priority now,
expect a given legal department to have to scrutinize deals,
debts, contracts, and other such things to provide more risk
avoidance. Thus, there will likely be opportunities in the
contract review departments for more general counsels as
well.
Outside law firms and oversight
of them will probably be shaken
up, too.

Internal company risk management committees, then,
will probably have to work more and report more often to
corporate boards.
All of this is not unexpected, of course. Any time a
major financial and corporate disaster hits, the surviving
companies all say, “How can we avoid the same fate?”
So what does this mean for corporate counsels? Well, at
a minimum, it means more work. Most likely, there will
be an increase in regulatory work, compliance issues, and
oversight. For corporate job seekers, if you can help in
those areas, you will probably be in high demand.
It also means that for those seeking a general counsel
In any case, expect general
counsels and the legal
departments at many firms to
expand. That’s good news for
corporate counsel job seekers. Get your resumes in shape
and get them in early, emphasizing how great you are at
oversight and regulatory compliance. Those areas will most
likely become very hot, very soon.
In particular, if the upcoming election brings a Democratic
administration, look for much more enforcement and
compliance work to be needed.
If you’re a lawyer who needs work, make sure you look to
the corporate counsel ranks for options. Good luck!

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