SmartSuite for the General Counsel
The General Counsel leads the legal function and is the organization's chief legal risk officer: contracts, disputes, regulatory matters, corporate governance, privacy and the legal view of compliance. They oversee outside counsel and report legal risk to the board.
What you own
The General Counsel leads the legal function and is the organization's chief legal risk officer: contracts, disputes, regulatory matters, corporate governance, privacy and the legal view of compliance.
- Lead the legal function and set legal strategy
- Advise the board and executives on legal and regulatory risk
- Oversee contracts, disputes, investigations and regulatory matters
- Own corporate governance and the corporate secretary function
- Manage outside counsel and legal spend
- Approve compliance and privacy policies from a legal standpoint
Reporting lines
Who this role reports to, who reports to them, and the peers they work with most.
Reports to
Direct reports
Works closely with
How SmartSuite supports this role
Lead
Matters. Tracks matters, disputes and regulatory inquiries with status, counsel and exposure visible in one place.
Contracts. Oversees contract review, approvals and obligations with version history.
Compliance management. Reviews and approves compliance-related policies and evaluates regulatory impact across jurisdictions.
Governance. Manages entities, board calendars and governance records.
Reporting. Reports legal risk, spend and open matters to the board.
Products this role uses most
Industry reference
The ACC's General Counsel competencies, corporate governance codes and the SEC's attorney conduct rules under SOX Section 307 (17 CFR Part 205, which require counsel to report evidence of a material violation to the chief legal officer and, failing an appropriate response, to the audit committee or the board) define the role. ABA Model Rule 1.13 makes the organization, not its officers, the lawyer's client. Delaware's Caremark line of cases, reaffirmed in Marchand v. Barnhill (2019), makes board oversight of mission-critical legal and compliance risk a fiduciary duty the General Counsel supports.
Sector regulation sets the subject matter: banking supervision, healthcare fraud-and-abuse law such as the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law, and privacy statutes including GDPR and the CCPA.
Related roles
Explore Further
Guides and definitions from the GRC Knowledge Center and the What-is glossary, chosen for this role.
Frequently asked questions
What does a General Counsel own as the organization's chief legal risk officer?
The General Counsel leads the legal function and sets legal strategy, advises the board and executives on legal and regulatory risk, oversees contracts, disputes, investigations and regulatory matters, owns corporate governance and the corporate secretary function, manages outside counsel and legal spend and approves compliance and privacy policies from a legal standpoint. They report legal risk to the board. The Legal Operations Manager, Compliance Counsel, Privacy Counsel and Corporate Secretary report in, and the Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Risk Officer are the closest peers.
How does SmartSuite help a General Counsel keep matters and disputes in view?
Legal Matter Management tracks matters, disputes and regulatory inquiries with status, counsel and exposure visible in one place, so the General Counsel can see every open matter, who is handling it, where it stands and what it could cost without asking each lawyer for an update. Regulatory Inquiries holds requests from regulators with their responses and deadlines. Exposure across matters is the figure the board and the Audit Committee Chair want, and it comes from the matter records rather than a quarterly survey.
How does SmartSuite support contract review, approval and obligations?
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) oversees contract review, approvals and obligations with version history, so the General Counsel can see which contracts are in review, who approved each version and what obligations the organization took on. The Procurement Director's supplier contracts and the sales team's customer contracts follow the same approval path, and obligations such as renewal dates and notice periods are tracked rather than rediscovered. When a dispute arises, the version history shows what was agreed and when.
How does a General Counsel approve compliance and privacy policies in SmartSuite?
SmartSuite lets the General Counsel review and approve compliance-related policies and evaluate regulatory impact across jurisdictions, with the policies held in Policy Management and the approval recorded against the version. The Chief Compliance Officer and the Chief Privacy Officer route policies for legal sign-off from the same record, so the legal view is captured once rather than in margin comments. For a group operating in several jurisdictions, the regulatory impact assessment shows where a single policy needs local variations.
How does SmartSuite manage entities, board calendars and governance records?
Entity & Corporate Governance Management manages the entities, board calendars and governance records the General Counsel is accountable for, with the corporate secretary function working the records day to day. Entity details, directors, filings and board and committee meetings are held together, so a governance question from the Audit Committee Chair or a regulator is answered from the register. That is the record state corporation law, exchange listing rules and the SEC's attorney conduct rules under SOX Section 307 expect a General Counsel to maintain.
How does a General Counsel report legal risk and spend to the board?
SmartSuite reports legal risk, spend and open matters to the board from the matter, contract and governance records, and Legal Spend & Outside Counsel Management holds the outside counsel budgets, invoices and performance that make up the spend figure. The General Counsel reports exposure and spend from the same source, so the board sees what is open, what it may cost and what it is costing to run. The Chief Risk Officer reads legal risk alongside enterprise risk from the same records.
What does a legal department need to bring into SmartSuite to get started?
The open matter list with counsel and exposure, the contracts in review and the executed contracts with obligations worth tracking, the entity list with its board calendar and the outside counsel budget by matter. With those loaded, matters are tracked from the first week, contract approvals run through the system from the next contract and the board report is built from the records at the next cycle. The Legal Operations Manager usually owns the setup, with Compliance Counsel and Privacy Counsel working their matters in the same records.
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