Google GC Kent Walker got a big promotion this week that’s boosted him from just the company’s top lawyer to its senior vice president of global affairs, a job that will also put him in charge of Google’s philanthropy and public policy teams.

Walker’s elevation to a role that places him under the spotlight of public and political scrutiny shows that companies, especially those in Silicon Valley, increasingly want their top lawyers taking on broader issues. But those wider purviews can come with challenges as well.