Like other executives, General Counsel are tasked with identifying and developing their successor. While hiring a new General Counsel from the outside can be costly, considering expenses like executive search fees, buying out unvested equity and unpaid bonuses, and relocation, the benefits of promoting an internal candidate to General Counsel are significant. Moreover, there is always a chance that an outside hire will not align with the leadership team or integrate well into the corporate culture. But, if properly mentored, the internal successor should already have a deep understanding of the business, sound relationships intact with the leadership team and Board, and alignment with company culture.

The results of a recent global survey of more than 1,700 companies published in the Harvard Business Review showed that diversity has a favorable impact on financial performance. This data is further fodder for the discussion of the necessity of diversity in our workforces.

The Academy Award-winning movie, The Right Stuff, inspires us to think about having the “right stuff” from a new perspective. This mysterious mix is not one single quality, but a composite of attributes driven by a commitment to an ideal and a willingness to keep striving to achieve new levels of success. I’m struck by how this was reflected in the lives of the pilots in the movie who eventually became astronauts; they had to reach beyond their professional status as pilots to embrace a much broader vision of themselves — and that is what eventually defined them.

Reviewing a recent survey conducted by global management consulting firm BCG, I was struck by the finding that “Diversity plus inclusion is the source of real value.” Since our clients are always looking for diverse talent and striving to improve diversity and inclusion within their organizations, I asked one of our Senior Advisors, Michelle Banks, to share her thoughts on the subject. Michelle and I discussed the idea that legal departments should be considering the next step beyond diversity and inclusion: creating a culture of belonging.

As in-house legal departments continue to grow and legal leadership continues to enjoy a greater scope and influence within the business, the legal team is, conversely, expected to do more with less.

According to the latest Acritas global survey of senior in-house counsel, the proportion of an organization’s legal budget allocated internally has increased from 37 percent in 2013 to 43 percent in 2017.

As in all companies, internal expectations vary between business units. Of these various relationships, one of the most dynamic and complex exists between business and legal, sometimes leading to occasions where the business places unrealistic expectations on the law department. To navigate this incongruity, I reached out to several sitting General Counsels from organizations of all sizes and compiled some of the issues and solutions below. In the end, communication and a strong relationship with the business prove to be most valuable.