Legal Thinks It's Adding Value. Does Leadership Agree?

We all know that general counsel are expected to be strategic business advisors and to add "value." It's the subject of countless conference sessions, articles, podcasts, and discussions about the evolving role of the GC. And most GCs believe they are fulfilling that expectation. So why doesn't the C-suite agree?

According to Thomson Reuters' 2026 State of the Corporate Law Department Report, 86% of GCs believe their departments contribute significantly to their organization's objectives. Yet only 17% of other C-suite executives agree, and 42% say legal contributes little or not at all.

That's quite a disconnect. And I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Much of the work legal departments do every day directly supports the company's business objectives. A product launch needs regulatory and marketing reviews. A new facility needs contracts and permits. An acquisition needs legal at almost every stage. So why aren't these contributions reflected in how the C-suite evaluates legal?

At Ready Set GC, we focus on the relationship between GCs and the leadership teams they partner with. This report raises a question worth asking: what does the C-suite actually expect from legal and how can legal demonstrate it is doing that?

What the Numbers Tell Us—and What They Don't

Thomson Reuters points to several possible reasons for the disconnect. Legal departments have become more efficient, adopted new technology, and developed better ways to measure their work. But those improvements don't necessarily translate into contributions the business recognizes. The report also highlights the need for better communication, closer integration with business operations, and a more proactive approach to risk. Simply doing more work, or doing it faster, isn't necessarily the answer.

The key words here are organizational objectives. The report isn’t talking about whether legal is doing good legal work. It's whether the business sees that work as meaningfully contributing to what the organization is trying to accomplish. We shouldn't draw too many conclusions from these numbers, but they give us a useful starting point for asking what we can do to close the gap.

It's also worth noting that the report doesn't establish whether the GCs and C-suite executives surveyed were from the same companies. So we shouldn't assume these figures represent a direct disagreement between executives working together.

Maybe we don’t mean the same thing by “strategic.” When asked about their biggest step forward in delivering value, most GCs described freeing up capacity through technology, hiring, and better processes. Far fewer described how they used that capacity to advance the business. As Thomson Reuters puts it, legal departments are often focused on unlocking capacity "while the business will only see where capacity is deployed."

The report also suggests GC priorities may be drifting away from what executives value most. Thomson Reuters describes enabling business growth as perhaps the most important role for legal in the eyes of the C-suite. Yet fewer GCs named enabling the business as a priority this year. Instead, more focused on efficiency and protecting the business from risk.

In other words, many GCs may measure legal's contribution by how well the department runs: faster, leaner, and better at managing risk. Executives may measure it by what legal helps the business achieve. Both views are reasonable. But until we close that gap, "strategic partner" may continue to mean different things on each side of the table.

Five Practical Steps GCs Can Take

The challenge, of course, is turning these principles into practice. Here are five concrete steps GCs can take.

1. Make sure your team understands the business priorities

As GC, you are often in meetings and conversations that your legal team isn't part of. Pay attention to what leadership is focused on, what challenges keep coming up, and where the company is headed. Then share that information with your team.

Review the company's strategic plan together. Summarize relevant board and executive discussions. Make time at team meetings to talk about the company's priorities—not just the legal work.

Ask your team: Are we spending our time on the things that matter most to the business? Are we getting involved early enough? Is there something we should be doing differently?

Your team cannot be expected to act as strategic business partners if they don't understand the business strategy. And they shouldn't have to be in the room to know what matters.

2. Ask your business colleagues how legal is doing

We often assume we know how our business colleagues view the legal department. But when was the last time we actually asked? Have conversations with the leaders you work with. Ask what's working, where legal is helping, and where they need something different. Be willing to hear answers you may not like.

Sometimes the issue is communication. Sometimes it's that legal is getting involved too late, taking too long, or focusing on something that isn't a priority for the business.

It can also help to hold legal to the same standards we use for outside counsel. Thomson Reuters notes that GCs fault law firms for purely technical analysis or for saying "you can't" without offering alternatives. Our business colleagues are judging us by those same standards.

The important thing is to understand the problem before trying to solve it. Better communication won't fix a problem with how the work is being done.

3. Tell stories that connect legal's work to business results

Legal departments are good at reporting what they do: contracts reviewed, litigation managed, policies updated, and training completed. Thomson Reuters notes that up-to-date metrics are becoming table stakes. But I think one takeaway from this report is that numbers alone rarely show leadership what the work made possible. That takes a story, told in business terms and tied to the objectives leadership cares about.

"We reviewed 300 contracts" describes activity. "We cut contract turnaround time so sales could close deals before quarter-end" describes a business result. Use the data to support the story.

4. Get involved before the decisions are made

It's difficult to be a strategic business partner when legal is brought in after the business has already decided what it wants to do.

Look for opportunities to participate earlier in discussions about important initiatives. Understand what the business is trying to accomplish and help identify options, trade-offs, and risks before everyone becomes committed to a particular approach.

And when you provide advice, don't stop at identifying the legal issues. Explain what they mean for the business and, when appropriate, offer a recommendation. This doesn't mean legal always says yes. Sometimes the greatest contribution is helping leadership understand why a proposed approach isn't the right one—and finding another way to achieve the objective.

5. Make legal's contribution visible

We have written before about the value of a legal department report. It doesn't need to be lengthy. Start with a few of the company's most important objectives. Explain what legal is doing to support them, what has been accomplished, and where challenges remain. Use a few meaningful measures, but not everything that makes a legal department valuable can be reduced to a metric.

And don't wait until the end of the year. Share updates in the ordinary course of business, and ask whether leadership finds them useful. The goal isn't more reporting work. It's to help leadership see how legal contributes to the business and to help the legal team stay focused on the work that matters.

"Strategic partner" isn't a title legal can give itself. Leadership decides it, based on what they see legal help the business achieve. The Thomson Reuters numbers may say less about whether legal adds value than about whether we and our leadership teams agree on what value means. The way to find out is to ask, listen, and tell the story of our work in terms the business recognizes.

Deborah Solmor

Founder, Ready Set GC

Chief Legal & People Officer, WARF