GE GC looks east for growth

Believe it or not, GE general counsel Brackett Denniston oversees a legal department containing no less than 1,300 lawyers. And yet the team is actually smaller than average when measured as a proportion of GE’s total workforce, which exceeds 300,000 people worldwide.

Brackett was at pains to point this out this latter fact when he delivered a keynote speech at the Legal Week Corporate Counsel e-symposium on Wednesday (22 November). After all, the last thing any GC wants is to be accused of having a flabby legal department.

More than 350 corporate counsel from over 20 jurisdictions signed up for the online conference, with sessions reflecting the most pressing issues in the in-boxes of senior in-house lawyers. These included nurturing talent, working with outside advisers, protecting intellectual property, privilege and managing litigation.

The war for talent has been an enduring theme on legalweek.com and in the magazine over the last 12 months. Clearly it is also at, or near, the top of Brackett’s agenda as he pursues his goal of maintaining a talented, business-minded legal team that is also capable of acting as the collective guardian of GE’s reputation.

Brackett said he devotes a third of his time to dealing with people in his team. He also revealed that while 70 % of GE’s lawyers are currently based in the US, that proportion is set to fall as the corporate giant invests in building its European and Asian legal teams.

To that end, Mark Elborne - who originally joined GE from CMS Cameron McKenna - moved from the US to London to take up the new post of European head of legal earlier this year (see story).

But Denniston identified Asia, and particularly China, as the key area for growth in the future. He is not the only one.

john.malpas@legalweek.com