Companies are increasingly looking to legal chiefs to drive a variety of significant changes, from adopting new tech to enacting pandemic-related workplace policies to improving corporate culture through better environmental, social and governance oversight. 

At the same time, some general counsel are taking the initiative to push for meaningful changes, seemingly on their own. In one recent high-profile example, The Coca-Cola Co.’s now-ex GC, Bradley Gayton, made headlines when he announced stringent diversity guidelines for the beverage giant’s outside counsel, before he resigned earlier this year.