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How General Counsel and Business Leaders Can Align for M&A Success

Digital risk, business opportunities and global commerce are now more dynamic and nuanced than ever before. In parallel, the role of the chief legal officer is continuously evolving and growing, increasing the need for collaboration with other key business leaders.

Top organizational priorities, including technology, operations, compliance, data management, privacy and overall corporate strategy, have become part of the CLO’s purview. This increasing sway over strategic direction includes activity surrounding mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other high value business transactions.

More than half of CLOs are already heavily involved in M&A and other corporate transactions. In working closely with the board and C-suite, there is opportunity for CLOs to take on more leadership across related responsibilities, such as data privacy and security risk assessment, due diligence across technology infrastructure and partnerships, regulatory factors, preparedness for merger clearance reviews among government agencies and contractual obligations. For organizations with private equity involvement, additional considerations may come into play, requiring additional oversight and diligence from the CLO, particularly related to information governance considerations and data requirements during second requests in the United States or merger reviews in other jurisdictions.

Notably, CLOs continue to emphasize the importance of interdepartmental collaboration for improved business outcomes, with finance mentioned as the second most important department for collaboration with legal. Counsel that partner across stakeholders and consider how legal can participate in and lead team and technology efforts will be in a strong position to help reduce cost, mitigate risk and increase efficiencies before, during and after a transaction.

This snapshot from the ACC CLO Survey covers key areas for CLOs to drive business strategy and success in M&A.

Download the M&A Success Snapshot.