As the daily headlines make clear, general counsel must increasingly deal with a broad range of relationships and arrangements that present conflicts of interest issues, and may also implicate a series related governance and regulatory requirements.

These issues are best viewed as a puzzle: each piece shares a common texture—the goal of assuring disinterested decision-making and preventing self-dealing—and each piece applies a different standard or definition. Yet all of the pieces must fit together if there is to be a consistent approach that complies with applicable corporate and tax law.