Corporate Legal Leaders Strategize ‘Tremendously’ Evolving Role

Thousands of corporate legal heads gathered in Philadelphia this week explored dozens of topics in a yearly convention. But one theme dominated: their jobs have gotten much more complex.

Top legal officers and their subordinates have assumed more strategic responsibilities, helping their companies deal with tariffs, an immigration crackdown, a generational transformation in artificial intelligence, rising cybersecurity concerns, and an about-face on what corporate diversity even means.

Beyond customary compliance oversight and administrative work, they’ve expanded into advising on budgets, talent retention and real estate portfolios.

“I’ve seen our role evolve tremendously in the last few years,” Timothy Phillips, chief legal officer at Habitat for Humanity International, said during the Association of Corporate Counsel’s annual meeting.

Here are three other growing concerns that general counsel are considering this year, as discussed in conference panels.

Compliance Landscape Intensifies

With President Donald Trump leaning heavily on tariffs as a core piece of his economic and foreign policy, customs and trade has been one of this administration’s top enforcement priorities.

“There’s a ton happening here,” said Wesley Carrington, assistant general counsel for trade compliance at Deere & Co.. “It’s not just how much is changing, but also the increase in enforcement risk.”

Carrington pointed to the government’s use of the False Claims Act in cases involving trade fraud as an example.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration signaled earlier this year that enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act would focus on activity connected to cartels and transnational criminal organizations.

For companies navigating compliance issues, the top priority should be removing risk associated with cartels and transnational criminal organizations from their supply chains, said Gray Stratton, a managing partner at DLA Piper. Existing compliance programs built on the FCPA and anti-money laundering rules can help, he added.

“You grab from the processes that compliance functions have undertaken for years in the AML space, the FCPA space, and in the sanctions space, and you just refocus it on this risk,” Stratton said, adding that high-risk geographies for the foreign corruption law are likely high-risk areas for cartels and TCOs as well.

With regulatory and compliance requirements changing, legal leaders must figure out when to inform their corporate boards about a shake-up, and when they can wait. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, has considered ending quarterly reporting, but hasn’t made an official change.

“You kind of use your business hat and lawyer’s intuition,” said Meg Cavanaugh, senior vice president of the legal department at Commvault Systems Inc.

Legal Departments as Technology Gatekeepers

The recent explosion of AI and other new technologies has created a new focus area for in-house counsel.

Even if lawyers don’t have a technology background, they still need to have a strong understanding of the tech that their company is buying, said Elizabeth Jones, associate general counsel at Breakthrough T1D, a diabetes research and advocacy organization.

“If something happens, it’s going to be my neck on the chopping block,” Jones said.

Attorneys and compliance professionals also need to “connect the dots” on how current laws and regulations could be applied to AI and other emerging technologies, said Tasheika Hinson, associate general counsel at Edward Jones.

That involves staying on top of the “mosaic” of new state laws and regulations that have blossomed in the absence of national action, she said.

Legal officers pointed to data privacy and other cybersecurity measures as causes for concern. But AI in particular is changing so fast that it’s hard for GCs to keep up, said Sajju George, founder of Apex LPO, a legal technology consulting company.

“This is going to be a very different conference next year,” George said.

To accommodate the computing necessary for AI and other technologies, more data centers are popping up all over the country.

“Communication is key” when it comes to engaging with the local communities where those centers are built, Equinix Inc. senior counsel Jeanine Anderson said.

Todd Blair, her fellow panelist and an assistant general counsel at American Tower Corp.’s data center unit, CoreSite, said finding allies and skilled third parties can help build consensus to get deals done, particularly if a company finds itself in a public hearing or forum.

Keeping Company Values

Executive orders from the Trump administration targeting “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts compel companies to comply, especially if they’re federal contractors, said Rippi Karda, associate general counsel at Verizon Communications Inc.

But sometimes, complying can mean a relatively small step, such as changing language or branding, not eliminating company values altogether.

“We’re in a transition phase, which I imagine most companies of our size are at the moment,” Karda said. “The essence of what we’ve been doing, I don’t think it’s changed much. It’s always been inclusive; we’re just calling it something different.”

Verizon has propped up a “culture and community” office to replace the “diversity and inclusion” office, but the unit’s primary goal is the same, said David Hubbard, the company’s deputy general counsel. Many other companies have taken similar steps.

“The laws have not really changed at all, so really what we’re dealing with is the reticence” to create controversy, he said. “People are more cautious now than they were before.”

Effectively communicating company values in general is especially important right now—in fact, it creates a competitive advantage in industries mired in consumer dissatisfaction, said Garrett Heenan, vice president of compliance and ethics for PDSHealth and former general counsel for insurance provider Avesis.

His advice: “Push that narrative with your executive team about the positives of ethical behavior.”