# What’s important to the general counsel and chief legal officer in 2025: PwC

## Master complexity to add value to the business

General counsel and chief legal officers (CLOs) face unrelenting volume and complexity of work resulting from geopolitical and economic volatility, regulatory obligations and uncertainty, new business challenges and workforce disruptions. Combined with unprecedented technological change, these factors have upended established ways of working and created new challenges for companies and legal functions.

Staying ahead of this complexity is critical to creating value for the enterprise and protecting the business in increasingly sophisticated ways.

## In the spotlight

### Detect and manage the latest risks

Forced labor in supply chains, unreliable data in litigation, corruption, business disruption in monitorships, and compliance risk in government contracting are examples of hidden threats to your organization. Legal departments need to understand these risks and apply forensics capabilities to limit your company's exposure.

Legal plays a vital role in determining new or potential contractual, regulatory or other issues that could merit changing operating models, including people, processes and tools.

### More insights

- **Forensics Today: Investigations and litigation**
- **06/03/25 America in motion: How businesses can own their next move**

## What to focus on in 2025

### Transformation

#### Enhance the value legal provides the enterprise

Advancing legal as a strategic value driver requires thinking differently, working more effectively, advancing innovation and leveraging technology to benefit the business. An agile legal function not only plans for new products and services, advises on complex transactions and facilitates productive relationships with business partners — all while providing the legal insights that back smarter decision-making — but it also helps shape and drive these initiatives in concert with the C-suite and business leaders.

Successful legal service delivery aligns with strategic organizational goals. Functional design is flexible enough to evolve with changing business priorities, accommodate process improvements and account for the effect of legal and risk management decisions and processes on other functions. Depending on your corporate vision, managed services provided by an experienced business partner can augment your team and help them to focus on higher value initiatives.

#### Additional ways to enhance the value of legal

- **Advancing legal as a strategic value driver**
- **Accelerating legal function modernization**
- **Manage costs with legal managed services**
- **Key takeaways: Tech-enabling the modern law department**
- **Innovation in the legal domain — AI**

#### Risk and regulatory

#### Manage legal and regulatory risk

To help manage operational and reputational risks, keeping a finger on the pulse of the risk and regulatory landscape — including emerging regulations, compliance, cybersecurity and data privacy — is one of legal’s core responsibilities.

Legal functions face challenging , tax transparency, environmental impact, supply chain composition, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and various other requirements. A practical risk management playbook will help your company stay ahead of changing regulations and other requirements, as well as meet stakeholder expectations. To increase proactive risk identification and free up resources for these critical areas, an effective playbook can help you determine where to upgrade, reconfigure or replace relevant tech applications.

#### Additional ways to manage legal and regulatory risk

- **PwC Pulse Survey: executive takes on election 2024**
- **From growing cyber risk to geopolitical instability, law firms rethink resilience**
- **Technology risk: So pervasive, it’s hard to see**
- **General counsel’s role in cyber disclosure**

#### Data governance

#### Improve information and knowledge governance

Effective information and knowledge governance is crucial to safeguarding your intellectual property and confidential information. It facilitates effective stewardship and secure use of your corporate information assets, as well as timely and accurate reporting.

Effective protocols and systems are vital for managing access and use, sharing, retention and disposal of information. Yet enterprise record and document management systems alone aren’t enough without user-friendly, secure and effective integration into daily processes. Strengthen information governance across the business by aligning process, training and oversight, and supporting them with appropriate technology. A well-designed, flexible information governance program can help your business safely accommodate virtual and on-site work, adapt to new technologies and provide appropriate guidance and effective risk management.

#### Additional ways to improve information and knowledge governance

- **Considerations for a successful CLM implementation**
- **Take charge of your contract lifecycle management**

#### Operations

#### Enhance contracting

Contract life-cycle management (CLM) is increasingly complex, with terms that address data management, security, privacy, access and more. However, these terms also offer opportunities for more flexible business deals and trading relationships. Moreover, efficient contracting that increases speed to market and has the right protections is among the most important ways legal teams tangibly benefit the business.

Accordingly, assess your contracting function to find where it could improve and how — for example, by standardizing and automating contracting processes. Develop and refine contracting playbooks and clause libraries to measure the value you’re getting from your contracts and agreements. Consider how recent technological advancements can bolster contract management from drafting and negotiation through execution.

#### Additional ways to enhance contracting

- **Considerations for a successful CLM implementation**
- **Take charge of your contract lifecycle management**
- **Accelerate automation with a cloud service provider**

## Explore executive insights

Identify the key focus areas of your colleagues.

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