General Counsel Masterclass | Session 1

Please note that this course is designed for LSE Law/Law and Finance students ONLY.

Certificates will be provided to participants who attend all three sessions. 

This three-part Masterclass offers an inside look at the world of the modern General Counsel — one of the most consequential and least understood leadership roles in business today.

Drawing on Bjarne Tellmann’s three decades of legal practice, including seventeen years as General Counsel of global public companies, the series explores how the GC role has evolved from legal adviser to strategic leader, risk architect, and institutional navigator.

The series follows a deliberate arc: from the macro forces reshaping the profession, to the micro realities of life inside a legal department, and finally to the personal choices and capabilities that define career success.

The goal is to equip students with a clear lens on how the legal profession is changing, and what it now demands of those who want to thrive within it, whether in a law firm, in-house, in academia, or with a legal services provider.

Session 1

Being a General Counsel Today: Careers, Technology, and Change

The job of the General Counsel has never been more important or more difficult.

In this first session, we step back and take a macro lens, looking at the larger forces that are reshaping the world in which today’s legal leaders operate. Over the past decade, corporations have entered an era defined by technological acceleration, geopolitical volatility, and rapidly evolving forms of risk. Artificial intelligence is only the most visible part of a deeper shift: companies are transforming themselves into AI-enabled enterprises, reengineering how decisions are made, how work is organised, and how value is created.

As that happens, legal departments are being pulled into new roles. The GC is no longer simply the senior lawyer who gives advice at the end of a process. Increasingly, they sit at the centre of institutional governance — helping organisations navigate uncertainty, design resilient operating models, and make judgment calls in environments where the law is ambiguous, the risks are interconnected, and the pace is relentless.

A core theme of this lecture is that disruption and change in the legal sector is being driven less by law firms or technology vendors than by clients themselves. As in-house teams become more sophisticated and AI-enabled, they are reshaping what they expect from outside counsel, what they keep inside, and how legal work will get structured, sourced, and valued.

We will explore the emergence of what might be called the “GC 4.0” archetype: a new form of legal leadership shaped by AI, enterprise risk, and institutional complexity. Along the way, we will consider how law firms, ALSPs, platforms, and even legal education are being forced to adapt.

This session sets the stage for the series, exploring how the profession is being reshaped from the client side out

Speaker

Bjarne P. Tellmann is CEO of FjordStream Advisors GmbH and a Senior Visiting Fellow in Practice at the LSE Law School. He spent three decades in global legal leadership roles, including as Founding General Counsel of Haleon plc, a FTSE 20 company, and Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Pearson plc, a FTSE 100. He has also held senior leadership positions across Europe, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East at Coca-Cola, Aramco, and Kimberly-Clark, and began his career at Sullivan & Cromwell and White & Case.

Session 1 – 3 March | 5.30pm – 7pm 
Being a General Counsel Today: Careers, Technology, and Change
Location: Student Common Room, 5th floor, CKK

Session 2 – 10 March | 5.30pm – 7pm 
From Law School to the C-Suite: What General Counsel and Legal Departments Actually Do in Today’s Companies
Location: Student Common Room, 5th floor, CKK

Session 3 – 18 March | 6pm – 7.30pm  (Drinks reception to follow after the event)
The Modern Legal Career: What Law School Doesn’t Teach You. Lessons from a GC
Location: Student Common Room, 5th floor, CKK