Fantastic people, interesting perspectives & General Counsel as key stakeholders (GC Forum GRC Briefs)

Last week, the second annual GC Forum Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) was held at the Four Seasons Hotel The Westcliff in Johannesburg, bringing together senior decision-makers to discuss “Legal Leadership in an Unpredictable World” across a superb day of expert panels, interactive sessions, knowledge sharing, and practical solutions to modern challenges.

As organisations navigate geopolitical uncertainty, evolving regulation, digital transformation and increasing stakeholder expectations, General Counsel are no longer simply legal advisers. They are becoming Risk Architects - shaping resilient organisations, enabling confident decision-making, and guiding leadership through periods of disruption and crisis.

Described by attendees as a day of “insightful and topical discussions” and “sharing experiences, learning and building stronger connections across Africa”, this year’s GC Forum GRC moved the conversation from understanding risk to leading through it. Collectively, we explored topics from designing resilience in uncertain times and what GCs are really being asked in the boardroom, to responding to cyber-attacks, building anticipatory legal function across diverse African jurisdictions, and innovation, risk, and accountability in a digital age.

The GC Forum GRC 2026 | Legal Leadership in an Unpredictable World programme was designed to provide practical insights that can be applied immediately, along with opportunities for connection on and offstage.

During a break in the action later on in the day, we grabbed a few moments offstage with Kenyan corporate lawyer and capital markets specialist Doreen Onwong’a, a partner and Head of Corporate Commercial at G & A Advocates LLP.

Doreen was the moderator for a practical conversation in the morning sessions on “Regulation in Motion”, exploring what it takes to operate, invest and grow across Africa as regulation, government priorities, and geopolitical circumstances continue to shift. She was joined onstage by in-house leaders Susan Batuuka Kaggwa of Uganda Airlines; Masechaba Makgolane of Thungela; Mpho Mgwebi of MTN Group Fintech, and Temosho Sekgobela of Takealot.,

You’ve come from Kenya to be a speaker at the GC Forum GRC in Johannesburg – what you have most enjoyed about this year’s event?

I think the people and the perspectives. The panels have been very interesting discussions, and I think the final interactive session was a most interesting part of the day, just having it as the last part of the onstage day and getting perspectives from several African nations, and getting lawyers to talk about investing in their countries. I loved the mix of that panel [which had lawyers from Zimbabwe, Ghana, DRC, and Namibia]. Also the panel on AI, and the session of cybersecurity and responding to cyber-attacks – that was a really interesting session. But overall, just a fantastic mix of people. It’s definitely been very worthwhile.

Why was it important for a Kenyan commercial law firm like G&A Advocates to be involved in this GC Forum GRC event, which seeks to bring together people from all across the governance, risk, and compliance landscape?

Well, I think in this particular kind of jurisdiction, General Counsel are one of the people that interfaces the most with us, because they’re really the legal custodians of their organisations. I think one of the key themes, for example, in the panel that I moderated, “Regulation in Motion”, was the GC as a risk architect.

So as external counsel, the GC is the person who interfaces the most, and having them understand how the legal environment works, how the regulatory works, then of course makes for a very seamless relationship. So I think GCs are one of our most critical stakeholders within the external counsel field. It was an interesting conversation in terms of just exchanging ideas. How can we support more? How can we work together more? Because, you know, it’s almost a symbiotic relationship; we work together to deliver for our clients.

Would you like to tell us a little more about yourself and your law firm?

So I’m a partner at G&A Advocates and we’re a law firm with offices in Nairobi and Eldoret in Kenya, and with pan-African ambitions. We mostly support institutional clients. That’s why this GC Forum for us was important because when you’re dealing with institutional clients and the kinds of briefs that we do across the corporate commercial sector, then of course your GC is your very principal stakeholder with you. An interesting thing is we’re celebrating 20 years in the Kenyan market this year, and we’re looking to expand across borders.

The issues being discussed today have been very interesting, and one of the insights that I got today, for example, was that Ghana has had three corporate listings. Kenya as well has had the same. So just the impact of African capital as well, local capital and pension funds driving investment.

It’s really good to exchange ideas and experiences, and seeing similar things happening across Africa. Like with Africa Legal, looking at what we can do to work together, and to make Africa work or to grow Africa. It’s been interesting.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about today, or anything you may take away from being here at this year’s GC Forum GRC?

I think it's been a fantastic day. We made absolutely great connections during the day, and it was worthwhile spending time, and travelling to get to be here. I think for me, in the same way that conversations around today were about how GCs can act as a bridge, whether it’s regulations and the outside world, or being strategic thinkers, can also apply to me as well in my practice. Being strategic, not being a handbrake in terms of meeting the business. But being part of the business, understanding the business, working in the business to drive the business. So that for me was key.

Even in my role as an external counsel, as lawyers it’s not about saying no. When clients ask ‘can we do this?’, it’s about finding what we can actually do, what we need to do, and structuring around this. You want to be a solutions provider.