Corporate · Succession
The sitting GC is not shopped. The successor is assessed against this company's regulator, not a borrowed org chart.
It is a confidentiality problem first. Of 38 GC and CLO placements since 2017, the successions are the mandates where a leaked process costs the company the person they still employ.
A general counsel succession is a retained search for the next GC or Chief Legal Officer while the incumbent remains in post — retirement, a planned move, a board-led replacement, or a silent loss of confidence. The successor must be able to report to the CEO, carry the corporate secretary book, and speak this company's regulator. We do not advertise the vacancy. We do not use the sitting GC as a source of names unless the Mandate Blueprint says so in writing.
The clock is the GC clock: 24 days to shortlist, 11 weeks median to accepted offer, range 8-16 weeks, n=38, 2017-2026. A NASDAQ-listed medtech company in Boston ran the search blind: a shortlist of four on day 24, an accepted offer in week 11, and the 12-month retention checkpoint held (the Boston medtech succession). Offer acceptance 96 percent. Twelve-month retention of placed in-house leaders 97 percent. Replacement term on retained GC and CLO searches: 12 months, in the letter before outreach. The method is a general counsel search. Parent mandate: in-house and general counsel recruiting. If the company has never had a GC, that is a first general counsel search, not a succession. If the board wants a C-suite legal officer — chief executive report, board access, enterprise risk and M&A — that brief is a chief legal officer search, on the same GC and CLO clock. The clock is the GC clock: 24 days to shortlist, 11 weeks median to accepted offer, range 8-16 weeks, n=38, 2017-2026. Offer acceptance 96 percent. Twelve-month retention of placed in-house leaders 97 percent. Replacement term on retained GC and CLO searches: 12 months, in the letter before outreach. Parent mandate: in-house and general counsel recruiting. If the company has never had a GC, that is a first general counsel search, not a succession. If the board wants a C-suite legal officer — chief executive report, board access, enterprise risk and M&A — that brief is a chief legal officer search, on the same GC and CLO clock.
ACC's 2026 Chief Legal Officers Survey is the public frame. The company's regulator is the private one.
84 percent of CLOs in ACC 2026 report to the chief executive. A successor who reports through finance or the COO will not hold the board. We lock the line in week 1, including the dotted line to the chair of the audit committee where compliance sits with legal.
62 percent of CLOs have majority oversight of the secretary function (ACC 2026). Minutes, conflicts, related-party, D&O, listing disclosures. A deputy who has never owned this book is not a successor; they are a specialist with a larger title.
64 percent of CLOs have majority oversight of compliance. The test is examinations sat, consent decrees lived through, filings signed — named, in the dossier. A payments CCO search uses a different desk; a GC succession still has to survive the same supervisor.
Full scorecard essay: what companies look for in a new general counsel. Title versus scope: chief legal officer vs general counsel. Boston in-house market: in-house counsel recruiting in Boston. Houston: Houston.
Promote when the deputy has already run a carve-out, a listing cadence, or the secretary book, and has sat across this company's regulator. The CLO of a PE-backed industrial group in Houston appointed a deputy who had already run a carve-out. That is the shape. We still assess the deputy as an external would be assessed — same dossiers, same references, same off-limits — so the board is not buying loyalty.
If the deputy fails the three cuts, say so in week 1. A failed internal process that then goes external costs you the 11-week clock twice and tells the market you are in play. Read promoting the deputy or hiring a new GC. Related seat: deputy general counsel and Head of Legal search.
Hire externally when the deputy has run a practice — commercial, litigation, M&A — and not the department. The market for sitting GCs who will move is thin; the market for deputies at listed and PE-backed groups who are ready is the field we actually map. First-GC builders are the wrong copy for a succession: they have not run a secretary book at this scale.
External does not mean a law-firm partner by default. It means a sitting GC or a deputy from a comparable perimeter. We map both. The public record agrees: our General Counsel Appointments Tracker logs every new GC and CLO at US-listed companies, where each came from and whether the seat was filled from inside, and General Counsel Pay at the Largest US-Listed Companies reads what the seat pays from the same filings. The Boston medtech succession shortlisted four names, none of them a surprise to a board that had already named the three cuts.
Who may know. Three cuts. 12-month replacement already in the letter. Conflicts check before a name is touched.
Sitting GCs and deputies against this regulator and this secretary book. The incumbent's market is not told.
Blind both ways. No CV movement without written consent.
Dossiers, not a longlist. Boston medtech: four names, every one already able to sit with the board.
The field narrows to two before a wider interview loop. Median accepted offer week 11.
Notice, announcement, 90-day checks. 12-month retention is the term, not a hope.
After the start date, the week-by-week calendar is the first 100 days: stakeholder map, risk register, and the outside-counsel review.
Timeline: Shortlist day 24; accepted offer week 11.
They treated succession as a confidentiality problem first. Our sitting GC was not shopped. The deputy we appointed had already run a carve-out.
The shortlist arrived in just over three weeks and every name could already sit with our board. The person we hired is still in post two years later.
47 placements. The internal candidate, assessed as an external would be.
Deputy GC searchWhen there is no incumbent. Different brief, same retained desk.
First GC searchThe retained method this succession sits inside: brief, map, slate, offer, onboarding.
GC searchFDA, licensing, IP and compliance for biotech, pharma and medtech. The Boston file is one of these seats.
Life sciences GC searchCorporate legal hiring hub.
Company hubYes. The sitting GC is never shopped; outreach is blind until mutual interest is confirmed. The Chief Legal Officer of a PE-backed industrial group in Houston put it as a confidentiality problem first. We write who may know into the Mandate Blueprint. Default is CEO, chair, and one CHRO. See how we run a search.
Promote the deputy when the person has already run the secretary book and faced the company's regulator. Hire externally when the deputy has run a practice, not the department. The test is the same three cuts we use on every successor scorecard. Walk through it in promoting the deputy or hiring a new GC.
The successor must report to the CEO, own the corporate secretary book, and speak the company's regulator fluently. ACC 2026 puts 84 percent of CLOs reporting to the chief executive, 62 percent with majority oversight of the secretary function, and 64 percent with majority oversight of compliance. Pedigree at a law firm is not one of the three cuts. The longer brief is what companies look for in a new general counsel.
No CV leaves us without written candidate consent; we check conflicts before any approach. Blind both ways until mutual interest. NDA on request. The sitting GC is not a reference, a sounding board, or a source of names unless you instruct us otherwise in writing.
On GC and CLO searches the shortlist arrives in 24 days and the median accepted offer in 11 weeks, range 8 to 16. A NASDAQ-listed medtech succession in Boston: blind process, shortlist of four at day 24, accepted offer week 11, 12-month retention held. Read the Boston medtech succession.
Retained GC, CLO and CCO searches carry a 12-month replacement term, written in the engagement letter. Other in-house searches carry six months. We never approach lawyers we placed for as long as they stay, and we do not recruit from a client's legal department for 24 months after a mandate.
Only if you instruct us to tell them. The default protocol is blind both ways. Some boards tell the incumbent after the shortlist exists. Some never do, where the departure is already agreed. We do not freelance that decision.
Confidential successor
Fee, replacement window and off-limits in the letter before we call anyone. The sitting GC is not shopped.
