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How General Counsels Are Turning Global Disruption into Strategic Advantage

Why General Counsels Are Central to Navigating Global Disruption and Regulatory Complexity

In today’s fractured world, geopolitics is no longer just background noise ─ it’s shaping boardroom decisions, investor expectations and regulatory enforcement. For general counsels (“GCs”), this marks a shift from solely a legal advisor to a strategic advisor. As guardians of legal and ethical integrity, GCs are increasingly positioned at the centre of strategic decision-making. Their remit now extends beyond compliance to encompass enterprise risk, geopolitical foresight and regulatory navigation.

Power is shifting globally, bringing nationalism, protectionism and polarisation to the forefront. From global conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East to intensifying U.S.–China competition, today’s GCs must help their organisations navigate disruption across supply chains, investment flows and policy environments.

With over 70 elections in 2024,¹ the results have highlighted widespread voter frustration with institutions and the economy. In parallel, regulatory divergence and approach is widening between regions. GCs are expected not to just interpret existing rules, but to anticipate how those rules might evolve and what they signal about enforcement priorities and reputational expectations.

This shift in the GC’s role has been underway for years. According to a recent Economist Impact report sponsored by FTI Consulting, nearly 60% of GCs report greater involvement in crisis strategy than they had five years ago.² As global uncertainty deepens, GCs are stepping into leadership roles that require both technical legal expertise and strategic acumen.

In this environment, compliance cannot remain retrospective. The GC’s role is to look ahead, linking external developments to internal readiness and aligning legal strategy with broader business resilience.

Embedding Geopolitics into Strategy

Traditionally, when something geopolitical happened ─ new sanctions, a regulatory shift or an additional export control ─ the legal team was brought in after the fact. The questions were “can we still do this?” and “what’s the risk?” Of course that still happens, but increasingly GCs are at the table before those questions arise ─ not just interpreting the implications but shaping the company’s strategic position ─ whether that is interpreting cross-border risk before it becomes a crisis, advising on reputational positioning across markets, preparing your boards for regulatory change or navigating cybersecurity risks.

Understanding the political truths and driving forces and viewing the changing policy landscape in light of that will allow GCs to make more informed decisions and build in the essential flexibility and agility needed to be able to navigate this unprecedented level of change and disruption.

Embedding geopolitics into legal strategy means getting ahead of the curve ─ not just reacting to regulatory shifts, but anticipating them. GCs should be interpreting cross-border risks before they escalate, advising on reputational positioning across jurisdictions and preparing boards for long-term policy change. By integrating geopolitical insights early into strategic planning, GCs can help their organisations build agility, engage proactively with regulators and strengthen resilience in an increasingly fragmented global landscape.

Managing Regulatory Complexity

We live in a world where borders are no longer drawn only on maps but in computer code, in supply chains and buried deep within regulation. We’re seeing data regulation, AI governance and ESG all increasingly being shaped by national security concerns, not just domestic regulation. Countries are tightening rules around where and how data is stored, from China’s Personal Information Protection Law³ to the EU’s Digital Services Act⁴ we are seeing conflicting obligations. What’s lawful in one jurisdiction may not be in another. Compliance isn't just about adhering to rules anymore ─ it’s about making judgment calls when rules collide.

Looking at AI, across Europe guardrails are being built around AI fast. With the EU AI Act the key tenet is innovation, but not at the expense of human rights, centring about a risk-based system with a big focus on compliance.⁵ In the United States for years the narrative was about risk ─ bias, deepfakes and AI safety – similar to Europe.⁶ But now, we’re seeing a shift. There is more talk about competitiveness, economic power and strategic dominance.⁷ With a fear of falling behind, that means loosening some of those regulatory ringfences, betting big on AI startups and even taking a more open stance on things like crypto. Meanwhile, in Japan, Singapore and South Korea ─ it’s a tightrope act. These countries are trying to foster innovation without triggering uncertainty and issuing guidelines rather than mandatory requirements.⁸

It’s important to stop thinking of compliance as a checkbox and start thinking of it as strategy. If you’re not building political and regulatory due diligence into your AI plans, you’re leaving yourself open to failure. It’s time to build global AI governance playbooks ─ not just for risk mitigation, but to enable growth across different markets.

From Crisis Response to Geopolitical Readiness

Traditional crisis response ─ reacting to data breaches, litigation or compliance failures ─ is no longer enough. Geopolitical disruption demands foresight and integrated preparation. With 85% of general counsel expecting corporate risk and demand on the legal department to increase at an accelerating rate in the year ahead, this is more important than ever.⁹

Some firms are creating geopolitical command centres that draw on legal, risk, compliance, procurement and communications teams to monitor developments and test scenario responses. This serves as a centralised hub for real-time intelligence gathering, scenario planning and coordinated decision-making, enabling companies to navigate complex global political and economic landscapes effectively. However, when it comes to stress testing, this is a big gap we see at the moment, with more than two-thirds of the canvassed organisations are not engaging in crisis simulation activities or integrating learnings from past crisis events into their crisis management strategy.¹⁰

This isn’t an issue for the GC to face alone, it will require collaboration from across the business. Take the tariffs issue as an example – increasingly it will be the GC with a broad appreciation of risk that will pull different internal stakeholders together – the CEO, the CFO, the Chief Product Officer, the Chief Marketing Officer, the Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Procurement Officer and, increasingly, the Chief Technology Officer – to work through the various impacts of the tariffs to operations and reputation. Again, we’re seeing a real gap here – with close to 70% of organisations lacking an identified ad-hoc cross-functional crisis response team or a pre-selected list of external crisis response advisors.¹¹

A Call to Lead

The modern GC doesn’t need to be a geopolitical expert, but they do need to ask the right questions, build the right partnerships, and understand how global disruption shapes local business decisions.

By collaborating cross-functionally, working with trusted external advisers, and building scenario planning into strategy, GCs can help decode risk before it becomes crisis. The most successful legal leaders are not those who know everything, but those who know how to bring the right expertise into the room.

2025 will test the adaptability and influence of GCs like never before. In a world where politics and policy increasingly define business strategy, the GC is no longer just a guardian of compliance ─ they are a steady hand, a strategic advisor and a catalyst for resilience and growth.

Now is the time for GCs to build geopolitical fluency into legal strategy ─ by strengthening internal alliances, engaging external experts, and preparing scenario plans that align business objectives with global realities.

Geopolitics isn’t going away. For legal leaders ready to lead from the centre, this is a defining opportunity.

Footnotes:

1: Aaron O’Neill, “Global elections in 2024 - Statistics & Facts,” Statista (January 22, 2025).

2: “Turbulent Waters, Trusted Anchors: The General Counsel’s Evolving Role in Navigating Crises,” Economist Impact (2024).

3: Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China

4: The Digital Services Act

5: AI Act

6: “United States approach to artificial intelligence,” European Parliament (January 2024).

7: “Trump Administration Early Executive Orders Signal Shift in AI Policy,” King & Spalding (February 14, 2025).

8: “Asia-Pacific Regulations Keep Pace With Rapid Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Technology,” Sidley (August 16, 2024).

9: “The General Counsel Report 2025: The Data Guardian in Chief,” FTI Consulting (February 2025).

10: “Turbulent Waters, Trusted Anchors: The General Counsel’s Evolving Role in Navigating Crises,” Economist Impact (2024).