How Good a General Counsel Are You, Really?
Fifty questions across ten competencies and the four faces of a modern General Counsel — Counsel, Guardian, Partner, Leader. Behavioral and scenario-based, not flattery. About 15 minutes. Built for GCs and senior legal leaders who are both the guardian of the institution and a strategic partner to the business.
What this assessment measures
10 competencies across the 4 faces of the General Counsel role — Counsel, Guardian, Partner, Leader — built on the The modern General Counsel mandate. Five questions each: scenarios, honest reads and forced choices designed to resist self-flattery.
Counsel
Legal craft and judgment — expertise, disputes, regulatory.
- Legal Expertise & Judgment — Forms a view, challenges outside counsel, owns the recommendation.
- Litigation, Disputes & Regulatory — Strategic dispute management; regulators; directing firms.
Guardian
Risk, governance and ethics — the institution’s last line.
- Enterprise Legal Risk & Compliance — Risk wired into decisions; a program that changes behavior.
- Corporate Governance & Board — Runs the governance agenda; trusted counsel to the board.
- Ethics, Integrity & Independence — Speaks truth to power; the conscience of the company.
Partner
Commercial and strategic business partnering.
- Commercial, Contracts & M&A — A contracting engine; deal strategy; smart, bounded risk.
- Strategic Business Partnering — Business acumen; the CEO will not move without you.
- Legal Ops, Data & Efficiency — Legal ops, AI/legal tech, spend, metrics that matter.
Leader
Department, external counsel and executive influence.
- Team, External Counsel & Budget — A bench, the client firms respect, an efficient function.
- Executive Influence & Crisis Leadership — Shapes strategy; leads the company through a crisis.
How the score reads
- Emerging (0–34) — Foundations forming — operating below a full GC mandate today.
- Developing (35–51) — Real strengths with clear, nameable gaps before a top legal seat.
- Established (52–67) — A solid, credible General Counsel across the four faces.
- Advanced (68–82) — A strong GC operating ahead of the role — board-grade.
- World-class (83–100) — A boardroom-grade GC — guardian and strategist of the company.
What you get
- An overall score out of 100 and a maturity level
- Your General Counsel archetype — the honest read on how you lead today
- A 10-competency radar across the faces above
- What companies actually demand from General Counsel hires, from real job postings, against your profile
- A personalized AI analysis and development roadmap, delivered by email with a print-ready PDF report
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