준법지원인은 소송위험에 따른 주가급락위험을 완화시키는가?

This paper aims to verify the role of general counsel in alleviating litigation risk and monitoring corporate internal control by empirically analyzing whether general counsels have a moderating effect on the relationship between litigation risk and stock crash risk. As a result of the empirical analysis, we find firms that have appointed a general counsel have a significant negative effect on the relationship between litigation risk and stock crash risk. This suggests that general counsel play a role in preventing litigation risk and internal monitoring, as we want to verify. The results are consistent even after controlling for selection bias in the sample through propensity score matching (PSM) and subgroup analysis. Furthermore, we find that the presence of a compliance organization and the position of the general counsel have a significant negative impact on the association between litigation risk and stock crash risk, regardless of whether the general counsel was an executive or had a legal license. This suggests that the role of preventing and monitoring litigation risk is more effective in companies that have a well-established compliance organization and general counsel position, rather than simply introducing a general counsel system. This paper is significant in that it examines the role of general counsel, which has not been studied much in Korea, in terms of their moderating effect on the relationship between litigation risk and stock crash risk and contributes by showing that general counsel can be effective in litigation risk prevention and internal monitoring through empirical analysis.