The role of general counsel and in-house lawyers has been rapidly evolving in the last years – and continues to do so. The Financial Times described this evolution as “in-house lawyers moving out of the shadow”. Indeed, the days where they “only” had to advise their companies on all kind of legal matters at local and global level have gone. Today, general counsels are called to manage a widening range of risk, compliance, governance, regulatory and operational issues and, at the same time, to support and promote their company’s business. Business, too, is becoming more complex, with the growing need to factor-in environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects and commitments, and to deal with the multiple challenges of the current global situation.

A panel of general counsel and in-house lawyers will discuss what this means for their day-to-day life, how they cope with their tasks and how these developments are affecting the way they work with external lawyers.