Beginning in 2020, ACC survey statistics showed that 93% of F500 General Counsel and/or Chief Legal Officers were listed as members of their company’s executive management team.

The term ‘executive’ is typically defined as a person who has senior management responsibility in a business organisation.  And drilling even further, the scope and responsibility of management is defined as reaching or achieving organisational goals effectively through planning, organising, leading and controlling human, financial and material resources.

It is hard to deny the fact that the role of a modern General Counsel has more business responsibility than ever before.  The legal organisation, as a whole, holds legal and risk responsibility, but the role and leadership of the General Counsel must go beyond that and therefore require more of an executive, rather than just legal, playbook.

One General Counsel Elevate works closely with, conveniently uses this simple diagram and HBR article to remind her teams each year of the importance of relentlessly aligning their time and activities towards the executive business goals.  As part of her executive playbook, she challenges her team to continually ask themselves this question – are my efforts or decisions aligned with the business goals we are trying to achieve?  If not, why are we doing it (even possibly kill it)?  If yes, systematise and execute it.

We will be discussing this strategic topic at the upcoming 2026 ACC Legal Ops Con, held in Chicago on April 21 and 22.  I will be hosting a panel of prestigious General Counsel who will be discussing their experiences as a legal executive and what sits within their individual executive playbooks. We will specifically discuss:

• What’s included in the legal executive playbook and how it differs (or not) from a standard executive playbook?
• How are legal executives effectively translating legal wins into quantifiable business impact?
• How do legal executives best coach their teams into business and legal leaders?
• How legal executives effectively scale business wins without equally scaling legal costs?
• How can legal operations best support the executive strategies and business goals?

Part of the session will also touch on Elevate’s Legal Executive Playbook, which includes a checklist of 10 strategic items General Counsel can use to benchmark and prepare for their executive journey and success. Participants will leave with this, and other resources designed to help legal and legal ops teams achieve success.

We hope to see you there!