The general counsel and chief financial officer roles and their relationships to each other may be changing.

Both are taking on more strategic and operational responsibilities, certified public accountants who regularly work with GCs and CFOs said. Todd Rahn, a CPA and senior managing director at FTI Consulting, said the roles’ “fundamental shift” from service provider to strategist is in part a “healthy byproduct of [the] stigma” that accounting and legal are cost centers.