A few years ago I was approached by a headhunter for a publicly-traded software company about coming on as their general counsel. We had lunch to talk about it;

A few years ago I was approached by a headhunter for a publicly-traded software company about coming on as their general counsel. We had lunch to talk about it; my prior experience in that role was a good match for what they needed. The search for a general counsel, though, had been commissioned by the CFO, who was politically powerful within the company, and who wanted the GC to report to him. I told the headhunter that, especially because this was a public company, in my view the job would have to report either directly to the board, or to the CEO with a dotted line to the board; I explained why. The headhunter said he thought that would be a problem but would check. He later let me know that what I'd said had killed the CFO's interest in me. I later saw in the paper that they'd hired someone else, who was reporting to the CFO. Best of luck to them.