The importance of the General Counsel being an effective educator lies in their ability to shape how the business understands and responds to legal risk. Legal issues are no longer confined to the legal department - they permeate every function, every deal, and every strategic decision. If the business cannot interpret legal signals, it cannot act responsibly or efficiently.

An effective GC teaches the legal team to interpret law consistently and apply it in a way that aligns with business objectives. This internal education ensures that legal support is coherent, scalable, and strategically aligned. But the GC’s teaching role extends far beyond the legal team.

Across the wider business, the GC must translate complex legal concepts into actionable insights. Whether briefing sales teams on contract risk, guiding procurement on compliance, or helping HR navigate employment law, the GC enables smarter, faster, and safer decisions. Legal literacy becomes a strategic asset.

Externally, the GC educates regulators, counterparties, and stakeholders - clarifying legal positions, managing expectations, and building trust. In all these interactions, education is not a side activity - it is a core leadership function. The GC must teach to lead, and legal literacy is the curriculum.

The scope of the GC’s educator role includes:

◼️Training the legal team on evolving legal frameworks and internal policies

◼️Translating legal concepts into business-relevant insights

◼️Delivering legal education to non-legal functions (e.g. sales, procurement, HR)

◼️Creating legal playbooks, toolkits, and decision guides

◼️Leading legal onboarding for new hires and executives

◼️Engaging with regulators and counterparties to clarify legal positions

◼️Promoting legal awareness in strategic planning and risk management

◼️Building a culture of legal accountability and proactive compliance

In GLS legal ops speak – the Educator is considered a “Foundational” resource within the process ecosystem of an in-house legal team.

The Foundational Resource is a CRE that is responsible for determining the overall performance capabilities of a “critical” legal function. If it is not optimised, the function can never be optimised. 

The best practice features of the GLP are as follows:

◼️A structured legal training programme for internal teams

◼️Regular legal briefings tailored to business units

◼️Accessible legal toolkits and decision-making frameworks

◼️A GC-led induction module for new executives

◼️Ongoing engagement with regulators and external stakeholders

◼️A centralised repository of legal learning resources

◼️Metrics to track legal literacy and training impact

◼️Integration of legal education into strategic planning cycles

The GC as Educator delivers the following value to the Business:

◼️Reduces legal risk through proactive awareness

◼️Accelerates decision-making by clarifying legal boundaries

◼️Enhances trust with regulators and external stakeholders

◼️Improves operational efficiency by reducing legal bottlenecks

◼️Enables faster deal-making through informed negotiation teams

◼️Strengthens compliance culture across the enterprise

◼️Ensures consistent legal interpretation across the team

◼️Reduces reactive firefighting by empowering business units

◼️Builds credibility and influence for the legal function

◼️Enhances collaboration with other departments

◼️Creates a scalable model for legal support

◼️Positions the legal team as strategic enablers, not blockers

The GC as Educator is essential for:

◼️Legal departments seeking strategic alignment with the business

◼️GCs aiming to elevate their influence and impact

◼️Organisations with decentralised decision-making structures

◼️Businesses operating in complex or regulated environments

◼️Legal teams undergoing transformation or expansion

A legal team operating without a GC as Educator will face a wide range of inefficiencies including:

◼️Increased legal risk due to uninformed decisions

◼️Bottlenecks caused by over-reliance on legal for basic queries

◼️Misalignment between legal advice and business execution

◼️Reduced credibility of the legal function

◼️Higher training costs due to ad hoc approaches

◼️Slower deal cycles and missed opportunities

While not inherently a tech station, GC as Educator benefits significantly from technology enablement:

◼️Learning Management Systems (LMS) can deliver scalable legal training

◼️Knowledge platforms can host toolkits and FAQs

◼️AI-powered chatbots can answer routine legal queries

◼️Analytics tools can track engagement and literacy levels

◼️Collaboration platforms can facilitate cross-functional learning