A general counsel (GC) is an organisation’s most senior legal adviser. They lead the legal function and help executives and the board make informed decisions. Looking towards 2027, that means combining legal expertise with commercial judgement, independent advice and a practical approach to people, cost and AI.
How is the general counsel role changing in 2027?
Contracts, disputes, regulatory obligations and external advisers remain part of the job. However, the brief reaches further.
KPMG’s 2026 global survey of 468 senior legal leaders across 28 jurisdictions found 75% regularly or constantly advised on non-legal issues.[1]
Looking towards 2027, the challenge for GCs is turning broader involvement into practical influence. That means helping the business assess an opportunity, understand the risks and agree a way forward while the options are still open.
For the board, that requires clear recommendations on increasingly complex issues, including AI, cyber and regulatory change. Directors need to understand the commercial implications, the risks they are accepting and who is accountable for managing them.
Closer involvement also requires independent judgement. GCs need to support commercial objectives while remaining willing to challenge assumptions, raise concerns and recommend a different course.
Cost reduction and flexibility: leading how legal work gets done
The GC’s remit increasingly includes designing how the legal function delivers its work. Alongside giving advice, they must decide which capabilities to build internally, where specialist support is needed and how to respond when demand changes.
That responsibility comes with financial pressure. In the ACC’s 2026 global survey of 1,049 chief legal officers across 43 countries, 35% identified budget and resource constraints as their top barrier to success.[2]
For 2027, this means GCs need to make a stronger business case for how they resource their teams. The question becomes: what combination of people, processes and technology will deliver the required outcomes at a sustainable cost?
Adapting means distinguishing ongoing needs from temporary demand, comparing delivery options and showing what additional support enables. Cost reduction must also account for quality, delays and the senior time absorbed by routine work.
Aclaria’s part-time, full-time and project secondments give GCs flexibility to adjust capacity as priorities change.[3] For example, additional commercial legal support can manage contracting demand while the GC focuses on a transaction or board priority. Specialisation: bring in the expertise the work needs
Specialisation: building capability beyond legal expertise
As the GC’s remit expands, the mix of expertise around them needs to broaden too. Specialist legal advice remains essential, but AI implementation, workflow redesign and legal operations also require technology and operational skills.
For 2027, this means GCs increasingly need to recognise capability gaps and bring together people who can address them. Their role is to connect that expertise with business priorities, set clear responsibilities and retain oversight of the outcomes.
Adapting starts with distinguishing skills the team needs permanently from expertise required for a particular initiative. A privacy project may need a specialist lawyer; redesigning legal intake may need an operations professional.
At Aclaria, we connect in-house teams with specialist lawyers and legal, technology and operations professionals.[4] This gives GCs access to targeted expertise while building their team’s capability and preserving capacity for their own priorities.
AI-enabled delivery: taking responsibility for how AI changes the work
AI adds another dimension to the GC’s role: overseeing its responsible use across the business while improving how the legal team itself works. That brings decisions about technology, accountability and team capability into the legal leadership brief.
For 2027, this means GCs need enough practical understanding to assess where AI helps, where it introduces risk and what oversight it requires. They also need to explain what the investment delivers beyond faster first drafts.Adapting means building governance into everyday workflows: clear data boundaries, confidentiality safeguards, human review and responsibility when something goes wrong. Success should account for checking and rework, alongside improvements in quality, cost and capacity.
Our AI implementation support brings legal, technology and operations specialists into in-house teams to support discovery, workflow redesign, implementation, governance, training and adoption.[5] The aim is to build capability within the team and give GCs room to focus on decisions requiring their judgement.
If day-to-day demands are crowding out your priorities, talk to Aclaria. We can help you scope the work and find flexible legal capacity or specialist support that fits your team.
References
1. KPMG. 2026 Global General Counsel Outlook. April 2026. Read the research.
2. Association of Corporate Counsel and FTI Consulting. 2026 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey: Key Findings. 2026. Read the findings.
3. Aclaria. Intelligent resourcing for in-house legal teams. Publication date not stated. Explore legal resourcing and specialist support.
4. Aclaria. Implement AI. Publication date not stated. Explore AI implementation support.
5. Aclaria. Implement AI. Publication date not stated. Explore AI implementation support.
