In-house leaders may no longer have the choice to be silent or to speak out on issues of race and political injustice.

An increased focus on environmental, social and governance efforts (ESG), and general counsel's increasing responsibility for overseeing those efforts, is forcing general counsel to speak up on a variety of social issues. Those investor and public demands, combined with a greater public focus on racial and gender disparities, have forced in-house leaders to think about their company's reputation when internal and external stakeholders want to know where a company stands on a hot-button issue.