As corporate boards seek a governance response to burgeoning social responsibility pressures, their chief legal officer can serve as an important resource towards a solution.

The recent controversy on corporate support for voting rights protection is the latest in a growing number of social impact issues that have been raised as part of broader “ESG” focus. These are issues—the “S” in “ESG”—to which boards, attentive to the interests of a broad range of stakeholders, must give close consideration. Yet the sheer number of these issues, the magnitude of their potential impact and the form of a proper corporate response, threaten to overwhelm the board’s ability to process and prioritize the concerns. The CLO, in her role as both technical legal expert and corporate counselor, is well suited to guide the board in its related efforts.