One of the key governance issues of 2023 has been the increasing conflict between the board and its chief executive officer on their respective roles; i.e., the hazy line between governance and management. It’s a conflict that can extend to the role and function of the general counsel.

That’s why the reported plans of Donald Trump’s advisors for his second term legal team offer a unique teaching moment on the basics of the general counsel’s engagement. According to The New York Times, Mr. Trump’s allies are proposing the appointment to government legal positions of attorneys who are “more aggressive and ideologically aligned” with his policies. Per The Times, the expectation is that these attorneys would, in turn, be more reliably supportive of Mr. Trump’s more contentious or controversial proposals than was his first term legal team.