Serving as a General Counsel (GC) is one of the most rewarding and challenging roles in business. On any given day, you’re expected to be part lawyer, part strategist, part risk manager, and part business partner. For me, working at the intersection of law and business has taught me that the real value of a GC is not just keeping the company out of trouble—it’s helping the company grow while making sure that growth is sustainable, defensible, and aligned with the organization’s long-term goals.
Why Balance Matters
The natural instinct of most lawyers is to mitigate risk. After all, our training teaches us to spot the problems, highlight the risks, and recommend caution. But in business, saying “no” too often can slow down momentum and prevent opportunities from being realized. On the other hand, saying “yes” without careful thought can expose the company to risks it isn’t prepared to handle.
The balancing act comes in finding the middle ground—protecting the business from foreseeable harm while not becoming a roadblock to progress. A strong GC understands the company’s appetite for risk, the competitive pressures it faces, and its long-term strategic objectives. With that knowledge, you can advise leadership not just on what’s legally sound, but on what’s practically achievable.
Protecting the Business
Protection is the first pillar of a GC’s role, and it takes many forms. It’s about drafting contracts that safeguard the company’s interests, ensuring compliance with regulatory obligations, and putting policies in place that protect against liabilities. But protection goes deeper than paperwork.
For example, when evaluating new partnerships, it’s not enough to simply negotiate favorable indemnities. You also need to consider who the counterparty is, how financially strong they are, and whether their culture and practices align with your own. Protecting the business means having the foresight to look beyond the immediate transaction and assess how decisions today will impact the company’s resilience tomorrow.
Fueling Growth
At the same time, a GC cannot operate in a bubble of caution. The best lawyers I’ve worked with understand that business is about taking calculated risks. Growth doesn’t happen without some level of uncertainty.
This is where the entrepreneurial mindset comes in. As a GC, you’re not just managing risk—you’re enabling opportunity. That might mean finding creative structures to make a deal work, streamlining processes that speed up execution, or leveraging legal innovation to cut down transaction costs. By approaching legal work as a growth enabler rather than a gatekeeper, you shift from being the “department of no” to a true partner in value creation.
Building Trust With Leadership
A GC’s advice only carries weight if the leadership team trusts that you understand the business. That means more than knowing the law—you need to understand the financial drivers, the competitive landscape, and the strategic vision of the company.
I’ve learned that when you bring legal advice into the boardroom, it should never be in isolation. Instead of saying, “Here’s the legal risk,” the stronger approach is to say, “Here’s the risk, here’s the business opportunity, and here’s a path forward that balances both.” This way, the legal perspective is integrated into decision-making, not sitting on the sidelines.
Trust also comes from accessibility. Being approachable, responsive, and collaborative helps build credibility. When colleagues know you’ll help them solve problems—not just point them out—they’ll bring you into discussions earlier, which in turn gives you more influence over outcomes.
Navigating Market Cycles
The balancing act becomes even more important when markets shift. In a booming environment, growth opportunities often move faster than the legal infrastructure to support them. In a downturn, the focus shifts to preservation, restructuring, and risk containment.
A skilled GC must flex between these modes. For instance, in a rising market, you might spend more time helping structure joint ventures or capital raises. In a challenging market, you may be negotiating workouts with lenders, managing disputes, or implementing cost-cutting measures. The thread that ties both environments together is judgment—the ability to calibrate advice to the realities of the market while never losing sight of the long game.
The GC as a Strategic Partner
What excites me most about the GC role is that it sits at the center of strategy. You’re uniquely positioned to see across functions—finance, operations, development, investor relations—and connect the dots in a way that few other roles can.
For example, you may identify risks in a financing structure that the finance team hasn’t spotted, or highlight regulatory headwinds that could change the economics of a deal. By being proactive and commercially minded, the GC becomes not just a legal advisor but a key architect of the company’s growth strategy.
Closing Thoughts
The General Counsel’s job is not about choosing between protecting the business and fueling growth. It’s about doing both, every day, with equal commitment. It’s about saying “yes” in ways that are smart, strategic, and sustainable, and saying “no” only when it truly serves the long-term health of the company.
Over time, I’ve come to see the GC role as less about drawing boundaries and more about building bridges—between risk and reward, between law and business, and between today’s decisions and tomorrow’s opportunities. That balancing act is not easy, but it’s what makes the role so impactful.