General Counsel Summit

THE BRIEF

Retail Week clients wanted to meet, engage with, and demonstrate thought leadership to senior legal stakeholders across a wide range of leading UK retailers and retail brands. 

Clients had a variety of needs across the event, with some wanting to showcase the expertise of their teams on the main stage, while others were keen to understand and discuss the key opportunities and challenges facing legal leaders within Chatham House roundtable discussions.  

All clients wanted to benefit from unrivalled brand awareness opportunities among the audience and secure key networking opportunities, embedding themselves within the retail legal community.  

THE SOLUTION

Returning for 2025, the General Counsel Summit once again brought together the UK retail sector’s top legal minds. With a day-long agenda featuring thought-provoking panels, business-critical discussions and unparalleled networking opportunities, clients had the opportunity to position their brands as trusted partners to the retail industry.  

With eight mainstage content sessions, an hour of dedicated roundtable discussions and five sponsored networking sessions, the summit was a prime opportunity for our partners to get in front of top retail decision makers and give their takes on key themes such as:  

• How legal leaders can prepare for the macro- and microeconomic shifts on the horizon 

• What retail legal teams can do to maximise impact with limited resources 

• How GCs can actively drive innovation and collaboration to embed sustainability 

• The changing role of legal leadership and what this means for retaining top talent 

• Cross-border commerce and how to navigate risk in the new trade landscape 

• Cybersecurity – managing risk, fallout and stakeholder communications  

• How to embrace AI as a legal function 

• What’s really moving the dial to support wellbeing in retail legal teams 

The summit hosted a dynamic speaker line-up with names from Sainsbury’s, B&M, Frasers Group, KP Snacks, Ocado Retail, Pets at Home, Specsavers, Greggs, Mamas & Papas, Notonthehighstreet, N Brown Group and Christie’s.  

Campaign marketing included:  

• A dedicated microsite with partner branding that showcased partner speakers alongside retail leaders  

• Social media campaign across X (95,000+ followers) and LinkedIn (74,000+ followers)  

• Native advertising on retail-week.com 

• A dedicated eight-week marketing campaign to Retail Week’s strong database of retail professionals  

With nearly 70 delegates in attendance, the summit was a standout success, praised by sponsors as one of the best legal events they had attended all year. 

As a key fixture in the retail legal community’s calendar and with strong demand for its content, the General Counsel Summit will return in June 2026.