About GCN
General Counsel Netherlands (GCN) is the modern professional organisation and creative knowledge network for ultimate responsible (in-house) lawyers in the Netherlands. It is the platform where General Counsel from a wide range of companies meet, help each other and share knowledge.
GCN is the knowledge centre for and by GCs and for everyone who cares about General Counsel. In addition, GCN is actively working on making General Counsel more society-wide visible.
General Counsel have a unique position within companies and face great challenges. They are the confidants of the Executive Board and various supervisory authorities, sometimes also acting as Company Secretaries.
At the same time, GCs support the business in large projects. At the crossroads between strategy and operations, they know better than anyone what is going on. As companies continue to transform and innovate, they are increasingly addressing issues such as cybersecurity, globalisation, privacy, ESG and reputation management, in addition to managing legal risks.
They also have a department to manage. The multitude of responsibilities makes the job popular and at the same time complex. No one understands this better than other General Counsel. Within GCN, various GCs and GCN Partners help each other with tips & tricks to make the job more successful.
Personal
GCN organises a wide range of activities. Core values are: quality, informal, confidential, an inclusive mindset and personal. GCN is not an anonymous network where participants are numbers. Everything must be right and participants must keep coming back with a smile.
That is why GCN Conferences are not a collection of boring keynotes, but dynamic days filled with self-selected GCN Round Tables, personal introductions and informal meetings. The dozens of GCN Peer-to-Peer group meetings that take place throughout the country also ensure that participants quickly get to know many other General Counsel.
The GCN Benchmark Surveys have been the number one guide for GCs in the Netherlands for many years. If you have a specific question, the team will help you personally. We can be reached every day.
From left to right: Linda de Heer, Anne Fleur Boshuis, Melanie Maas and Michiel van Straaten
The GCN team
General Counsel Academy
To this end, we work closely with several professors from the Rotterdam School of Management / Erasmus University and other professors and experts from home and abroad. Instead of becoming better lawyers, the courses of the General Counsel Academy help to become better leaders and “trusted business advisors” at the CEO level.
The GCA Executive Program is the core program of the General Counsel Academy. During an intensive week, a group of up to 22 GCs/CLOs immerses itself in a high-level learning experience focused on Business Management and the future of the General Counsel role. In addition, we organize several shorter Business Courses, including: GCA Executive Courses.