The role of the General Counsel is evolving. Legal expertise remains fundamental, but it is no longer sufficient. Today's GC is increasingly a business leader, culture architect, organisational designer, technology adopter and developer of people—all while operating in an environment of almost continuous disruption. Over the first two years of the GC Wellbeing Network, we have had hundreds of conversations with senior in-house legal leaders around the world. Those conversations build on more than twenty years of work exploring the relationship between wellbeing, leadership, organisational design and performance. Six themes consistently stand out. They suggest that the next evolution of the General Counsel will not simply be about acquiring more expertise or adopting better technology. It will be about becoming a different kind of leader.

Earlier this summer we sat down with GCWN founding advisory board member, Jeff Langlands, General Counsel at Tesco UK & Ireland for a discussion on GC expectations, pressure, performance and a way of understanding wellbeing that makes a positive difference. Hosted by Chloe Muir, Director of DEI at Pinsent Masons.

I was incredibly fortunate that my first manager (when I moved in-house) was, above all, a leader who never forgot the human side of leadership. He expected high standards and hard work, but he also understood the importance of enjoying what we did and making time for people. No matter how busy he was, he always had time for his team, and that left a lasting impression on me. He built more than a legal team. He created a community. Many of us were expatriates who had left our home countries to pursue new opportunities, and he fostered an environment where we genuinely looked after one another. Those relationships became lasting friendships, and many of us remain close today. To me, that is one of the clearest measures of great leadership: the positive impact continues long after people have moved on.

Margarete Vale, senior legal counsel at Constellation Cold Logistics, shares three main takeaways from our June 2026 workshop at Pinsents in London, including the importance of thinking time, being more intentional with mornings, and the application of the Yes/No/Yes framework.

GCWN workshops are intentionally confidential. We do not record discussions or share attendee conversations. This short film offers a glimpse of the themes, connections and leadership conversations that emerge when senior legal leaders come together to learn from one another.

Legal teams are expected to scale like operations—but often without operational infrastructure. The most underpriced risk in growth is the assumption that controls, culture, and accountability will scale on their own. Revenue scales. Headcount scales. Technology scales. But governance doesn’t—unless you deliberately rebuild it. Growing companies often assume yesterday’s success is proof that today’s risk is manageable. What they underestimate is how quickly decision velocity outpaces oversight. Authority diffuses, processes get informal, and exceptions become the norm—right at the moment the company is becoming more visible to regulators, plaintiffs, and the market.

Per, Global Senior Group Legal Counsel for Value Protection at Ericsson based in London, reflects on some key habits for better sleep before highlighting the importance of peer discussion in breakout rooms during our online sessions.

Head of Legal at Howden Group, Michaela shares her three takeaways on our Q2 online session for the UK chapter, the need to reset legacy habits, the importance of intentionality and preparedness for sleep, and the wider context of acknowledging a busy legal life.

“Some of the most valuable learning for senior legal leaders now comes from peers navigating the same challenges in real time. Frontline is designed to surface those practical insights in a more open, trusted, and actionable way.”

Fergus Speight, GCWN Advisory Board Member & GC, Zilo

“What makes GCWN distinctive is that it creates a trusted space for senior legal leaders to step back, reflect honestly, and learn from peers facing similar pressures. The fact that this work is being recognised alongside some of the legal sector’s largest institutions reflects how conversations around leadership, governance, and human sustainability are changing.”

Matt Wilson, Chief Legal Officer, Fremantle & Advisory Board Member, GCWN

“It’s encouraging to receive this recognition. It provides validation for the journey so far and the openness of the GC community to engage with wellbeing as a core part of leadership and performance. More importantly, we hope it supports the continued growth of the network and its ability to have a meaningful, positive impact for senior in-house counsel around the world.”

As a society we’ve become very used to immediacy – whether its through instant responses to Whatsapp and Teams/ Slack messages or the instant gratification you get from likes on a social media post. You then add in the fact that AI is accelerating those expectations further. Stakeholders can drop a question into ChatGPT or Gemini for an initial view before they’ve even knocked on Legal’s door. I’m very focused on how we respond to this as a team. Part of it is about being more intentional in protecting time for high quality thinking. But equally, it is also about embracing the opportunity that AI presents us.

Head of Legal at Pi Securities in Thailand, Suthatip shares her reflections from our first APAC event on 24th April, noting the importance of cultivating a foundation of resilience for growth and sustainable performance, and highlighting the need to hold space between stimulus and response.

Filippo, Head of Legal for EMEA at Ericsson, shares his key takeaways from the “Leading Through Uncertainty” webinar designed to support senior legal leaders navigating the ongoing Middle East conflict, including the importance of recognising the impact on the people you lead.

Reflecting on last week’s first event of 2026, “Brain Health for Legal Leaders” Senior legal counsel at Global in London, Moushumi, shares her impressions on the importance of understanding our brains neurochemistry and relation to stress and behavioural patterns in a busy legal life.

This conversation offers a deeper look at the evolution of the General Counsel Wellbeing Network, from its early foundations through to the current work across regions. It explores the thinking behind GCWN’s approach to leadership, performance, and wellbeing, and how the network is supporting senior in-house counsel in navigating increasingly complex and uncertain environments. With thanks to Charlene Gisele for the invitation.

As we prepare for our first APAC workshop in Bangkok, we spoke with Santipap Charasphaew, Head of Legal at Bitazza, to get a local perspective on the evolving in-house landscape in Thailand. Santipap is also a committee member of the Thai Corporate Counsel Association and will be joining us at Agoda on 24 April, alongside a group of senior in-house leaders from across the city. The conversation provides a useful window into the regional context as we begin to establish the GCWN community in Asia.

You need to be able to love, or at least get satisfaction from, the fact that you never know what you might need to help your organisation deal with next. That’s the fun of it…the most challenging aspect is how you can still peer round corners and move forward the things that are important but not urgent, while dealing effectively with the immediate important and urgent items.

The hybrid nature of law in the Middle East is unique. One morning you’re dealing with a civil law concept in Cairo, in the afternoon it’s a DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) common law dispute in Dubai, and by evening you’re navigating the rapid regulatory evolution of Vision 2030 in Saudi. Culturally, business here is still done over coffee and trust. If you can’t navigate the Majlis (translated as ‘sitting place’ to connect and discuss) as well as you navigate a Master Service Agreement, you’re only doing half the job.

While leadership development has traditionally focused on sharpening the mind, far less attention has been paid to the heart, despite it being both the engine room of human performance and the seat of our capacity for connection, compassion, and courage. For senior in-house leaders operating under sustained pressure, the heart carries a dual burden: regulating physical stress while simultaneously holding the emotional weight of responsibility, uncertainty, and constant decision-making. This paper explores the heart from both a physiological and human perspective, drawing on science, leadership practice, and lived experience to make a simple case: how we lead is inseparable from how our heart is functioning.