A new general counsel is hired for legal judgment, but success in the seat depends on something the job description might not explicitly state: relationships. The fastest way to stall is to be the smartest lawyer in the building, whom no one brings into the room early. The fastest way to thrive is to become the person the chief executive, the board, and every function reaches for before a decision is made.
The in-house counsel who earns that trust, builds it deliberately in the first months. To see how, we asked sitting general counsels across our GC Sidebar interview series how they do it, and four habits came up again and again:
Here’s how each one works, with a practical way to put it into motion.
The relationships that matter most start at the very top. In the 2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey, 44% of chief legal officers (CLOs) said advising the CEO and shaping business strategy is where they have their biggest impact, and 79% now report directly to the CEO. For a new general counsel, that makes understanding the people around the table the first order of business.
In our conversation with Ron Bell, Chief Legal and Administrative Officer at Collective Health, that mapping was step one:
“Learning who they are, the board, the CEO, the executive team, the investors, the regulators, whoever they are, and relating the decisions to an understanding of what each of them would prioritize, what each of them would want to know.”
A new GC who knows what each leader cares about can present the same legal issue three different ways for three different audiences, which is what makes legal a guide rather than a gate. The map should reach past the executive team, too: the chief compliance officer, the outside counsel a GC will lean on, and the functions where risk concentrates, from intellectual property and cybersecurity to government affairs.
How to Map the Leadership Team
In your first 30 days, build a simple stakeholder map: the CEO, CFO, board, and the heads of every major function. For each, note what they’re measured on and what they need from legal. Then ask for a standing one-on-one with the leaders you’ll work with most.
In-house lawyers earn influence by translating legal risk into the terms the rest of the C-suite already uses. Andrew Epstein, former General Counsel at Demandbase, learned that the hard way, as he explained in his GC Sidebar episode:
“You really have to be able to frame a key initiative in a way that’s going to be impactful to the listener and make sense to the listener, depending on who that listener is, in order to move your agenda forward.”
Going to the CFO for budget means explaining why legal operations matter in the language of return, not risk. The legal leaders who get heard tailor the message to the listener, whether that’s the CEO, the CFO, or a product head, and win the resources and the buy-in that a memo never will.
How to Make Your Case Land
Before any executive asks, write the one sentence that connects your request to that leader’s goal: revenue for the CFO, speed for sales, reputation for the CEO. Lead with that sentence, then the legal detail. Bring the strategic vision, not just the caveats.
A general counsel sees across the whole company, which makes the role a natural hub. Sarah Wilson, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Circle, described it in her conversation:
“General counsels are the dot connectors at companies. You really help put people in connection with others. I’ll ask questions about who all cross-functionally has weighed in on it and is signed off.”
The connector role only works if you’re also the calm in the storm. The board and the business need to see the GC as the company’s steady hand, calm and collected even when a crisis is brewing, because a general counsel running around with their hair on fire only elevates everyone else’s panic. For a new GC, being the person who lowers the temperature is how trust compounds.
How to Become the Steady Connector
When an issue lands, ask who across the company has already weighed in before you opine, and pull them together. In a crisis, slow your own tempo on purpose: a steady, structured response from the GC sets the tone for corporate governance and the board’s confidence in you.
The C-suite extends trust fastest to a general counsel who clearly understands the business, not just the law.
Fabio Bertoni, General Counsel at The New Yorker, said in our conversation:
“If you’re just giving pure legal advice, you’re not really doing your job. You need to deeply understand the client, what matters to them, and the broader goals of the business.”
Luis Machado, General Counsel at TopBuild, treats that understanding as a mandate to get out of the legal department, telling us in his episode:
“You cannot possibly know too much about your business. And I’m not talking about legal. I’m talking about the business you’re in and the business you’re supporting.”
Alisha Cieslak, former Chief Legal and Risk Officer at Gordon Food Service, said in her interview:
“A modern GC has to be a business leader first, whose work is informed by the law.”
A new general counsel who speaks fluently about how the company makes money stops being a cost center in the C-suite’s eyes and becomes a peer.
How to Build Business Fluency
Spend your first quarter learning the commercial model: sit in on sales calls, read the board deck, and visit operations. Build relationships with business leaders before they need legal help, so you’re included in conversations early rather than at the final approval stage. Then, tie one early legal win to a business outcome the CEO cares about, and make sure the C-suite sees the connection.
These habits compound over the first year, and they’re the same ones we walk through in our guide to a new GC’s critical first year.
The general counsel who wins the C-suite’s trust is rarely the one with the deepest case law. It’s the one business leaders instinctively involve before decisions are made because they know legal will help shape better outcomes, not simply review them after the fact.
Understanding what every leader cares about, speaking their language, connecting the company’s moving parts, and staying steady when things get hard helps a new general counsel become someone the business wants to bring along from the very beginning. As Lisa Gorman, Former CLO at Eventbrite, put it:
“It’s really just about relationships, building relationships and building trust, so that people don’t feel like they have to come to you. They really want to bring you along.”
For a deeper playbook on the first year in the role, explore Paragon’s New GC Toolkit.
A few questions come up again and again from lawyers stepping into the general counsel role for the first time.
Relationships and context. Whether you rose up as corporate counsel, were promoted to head of legal, or arrived from outside, a new GC should map the leadership team, understand how the business makes money, and build trust with the CEO and board before diving into deep legal work. That foundation is what gets your advice heard and acted on later.
Most report to the chief executive. In the 2025 ACC Chief Legal Officers Survey, 79% of CLOs said they report directly to the CEO, which is why the CEO relationship is the one a new general counsel should invest in earliest.
By being the steady, prepared presence the board can rely on. Communicate clearly, flag risks early, stay calm under pressure, and connect legal issues to the company’s strategy and corporate governance rather than presenting law in isolation.
Business fluency and judgment, more than legal expertise alone. The most trusted general counsel act as business leaders informed by the law, tailor their message to each executive, and help leaders connect decisions across the company.
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