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Pro
Not really much in the way of Pros on its own. It usually means the org is non-public and the legal team is small. If you’re a growth company, that probably means room to grow with the org as it scales, and lots of interesting work across different areas. Cons are your team doesn’t have a direct line to the CEO and will not be seen as equivalently senior to C-suite execs. Maybe not even SVPs. So unless you have a really good and exec-quality Head of Legal that can bend the org to their will regardless of title, you’ll struggle more with visibility and strategic input. It also usually means you’re not in a super regulated industry, and the legal work is mostly commercial contract grinding + finance/corporate matters (which typically run up to the CFO anyway, hence the structure). IMO this is fine for young scaling companies that don’t need to pay for the expertise of a C-level GC. It can be good professionally if you join early and can ride the wave to hopefully an IPO and a change in reporting structure. But IMO the biggest single predictor of if this will work is the quality and “executive presence” of the head of legal. If you sign up, you’re basically betting on riding their coattails.
I wouldn’t work somewhere where I didn’t report to the CEO. Reporting to someone below the CEO indicates how the company views the legal function. One obvious con is just access. I don’t need approval from my CFO or COO to raise issues with my CEO or Board.
Rising Star
big con, deputy gcs in our company have access to the ceo
Pro
You’re saying someone without a direct line has CEO access? This kind of supports the “GC reports to CFO” model.