A new GC’s first 90 days should follow a set order: listen to the business, assess the legal team and work you’ve inherited, set a baseline for spend and workload, fix the highest-friction workflow with technology, then build a two to three year strategic plan of three to five priorities. That’s the blueprint shared in a Lexology masterclass sponsored by DiliTrust.
As a new GC, your legal acumen has already been assessed. What the CEO and board are expecting and weighing now is your judgment, your courage to say something unpopular, and whether you’re the person they want in the room when something goes wrong at 10 at night.
So how do you start proving it?
These are the key learnings from the Lexology masterclass A strategic blueprint for today’s new general counsel, sponsored by DiliTrust. Corinne Dentello, Head of Global Marketing at DiliTrust, hosted Deborah Ben-Canaan, partner at Major, Lindsey & Africa; LaTanya Langley, Chief Administrative Officer at Edgewell Personal Care; and Veta Richardson, President of Oakton Ventures and former President and CEO of the ACC, who sits on DiliTrust’s advisory board.
Authority in the role is earned in a set order: the business first, then the function, followed by the tools, and finally the plan.
Stage 1: Listen before you advise
A GC is hired to help the leadership team run the business, so talk business with the CEO and board first. What is the company trying to accomplish? What’s in its way?
The legal issues people raise are rarely the most useful thing you’ll hear. Listen for what sits underneath:
- How do decisions really get made?
- How does bad news travel?
- How much risk are leaders accepting?
Put the same questions to every leader, and patterns surface.
Then close the loop: what you heard, what you’re prioritizing, what waits. As LaTanya Langley put it, “You earn the right to advise the business by first showing that you’ve listened and you understand it.”
Stage 2: What have you actually inherited?
The team is assessing you as closely as you’re assessing it. So hold off on restructuring: reorganizing the team, changing roles or reporting lines, replacing people before you’ve assessed them. Langley’s approach: one-to-ones with every team member, skip-levels included.
Move too fast and the inherited team starts looking elsewhere. Deborah Ben-Canaan sees it from the recruiter’s side: when a new GC makes big calls early, résumés from that legal department start arriving within months.
From there, ask whether this is the right team for where the company is heading. Start with the work: what comes in, what needs legal judgment behind legal automation decisions, what could go to legal ops, technology, outside counsel or back to the business. Then decide whether the gap is capacity or capability.
“Don’t confuse familiarity with capability,” Ben-Canaan told GCs tempted to rehire old colleagues.
Set the baseline before anyone asks
A recent Gartner report, cited in the session, found that only about a third of legal departments use technology to manage incoming legal requests. Most new GCs walk in without a clear baseline. Capture one early: total legal spend as a share of revenue, the inside-versus-outside spend ratio, whether entities are in good standing. Skip measurement, and proving progress in year two will require you to rebuild year one.
Stage 3: Which problem should technology solve first?
CEOs have less patience now for a GC who calls technology someone else’s job. Leadership expects real examples: the problem you set out to solve, and what you implemented.
Ask the business where legal slows it down, and you have a roadmap. Let the people who do the work test tools on real documents, with IT and privacy involved early. Fix first what’s high value, lower risk and measurable: an early win buys credibility with the CFO and funds the next step.
“The best legal tech decision you’ll make is the one that your team actually adopts,” Langley said.
Stage 4: From a 90-day plan to a strategic plan
A 90-day plan earns the right to lead. A strategic plan sets where the function goes over two to three years. Confuse them and you either try to transform everything at once or never leave onboarding.
Spend the first 90 days on one or two visible wins. Re-orgs and major technology investments wait for the data and relationships that make them stick. Keep the strategic plan to three to five priorities with metrics, talent and budget, reviewed with the CEO before the board. Borrow from peers’ plans. There’s no prize for originality.
Think before you act
Before you act, learn the business. Listening gives you context, the baseline gives you legal KPIs, and without both your to-do list has no intention behind it and no way to show impact. As Corinne Dentello said closing the session, you can’t lead what you can’t see.
A new general counsel’s first 90 days should follow a set order: listen to the business, assess the legal team and work you’ve inherited, set a baseline for spend and workload, fix the highest-friction workflow with technology, then build a two to three year strategic plan of three to five priorities. That’s the blueprint shared in a Lexology masterclass sponsored by DiliTrust.
Frequently asked questions
What should a new general counsel do in the first 90 days?
Start by listening to the CEO, the board and business leaders, then assess the legal team and the work it handles. Capture a baseline for spend and workload, fix one high-value workflow, and aim for one or two visible wins. Re-orgs and major technology investments come later, once you have data and relationships.
What questions should a new GC ask business leaders?
Ask every leader the same questions so patterns surface. What is the business trying to accomplish? What’s in its way? Where does legal slow you down? Listen beyond the legal issues for how decisions get made, how bad news travels and how much risk leaders accept. Then share back what you heard and what you’re prioritizing.
Should a new general counsel restructure the legal team right away?
Usually not. The team assesses you as closely as you assess it, and early reorganizations can push good people to leave. Hold one-to-ones with every team member first, map the work coming in, then decide whether any gap is a capacity problem or a capability problem.
What metrics should a new GC baseline?
Start with total legal spend as a share of revenue, the ratio of inside to outside spend, and whether the group’s entities are in good standing. Without a baseline captured early, showing progress to the CEO and board in year two means reconstructing year one.
How should a new general counsel choose legal technology?
Start from the problem, not the tool. Ask the business where legal slows it down, let the people who do the work test tools on real documents, and involve IT and privacy early. Fix first what is high value, lower risk and measurable. The best choice is the one your team actually adopts.
What is the difference between a 90-day plan and a strategic plan for a GC?
A 90-day plan earns the right to lead: it covers learning the business and delivering one or two visible wins. A strategic plan sets where the legal function goes over two to three years, with three to five priorities, metrics, talent and budget, reviewed with the CEO before the board.
