When corporate boards, CEOs and general counsel need answers to the most critical questions—going to the core of a company’s identity, culture and financial health—to whom should they turn? Who can they depend on to get to the bottom of complex factual webs that may involve hundreds of people and the company’s most sensitive information?

Many corporate decision-makers’ first and strongest impulse is to rely on the company’s most familiar and trusted advisors—its senior in-house lawyers and longest-tenured outside firms.