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Or does any one practice area prepare for that role moreso than others?

M&A/general lit is what you'll find for most GCs backgrounds. A GC of a fund might be a funds lawyer, a GC of a tech company might be an IP transactions/IP lit lawyer, a GC of a bank might be a capital markets lawyer (etc.), but it's generally M&A/general lit folks. You're rarely ever going to have tax, ECEB, funds, environmental, trusts & estates, antitrust, bankruptcy, etc. attorneys as GC of major companies.

Thanks!

Any idea why M&A in particular rather than, say counsel for distribution, sales and marketing of key products? My thinking was that that area would provide more familiarity with the business side and other facets of the company, but apparently this is not the case if M&A is where most GCs come from.

It's clearer why general lit though.

M&A makes you familiar with issues in a lot of areas of the law, which is a useful skill for a GC to have.

If that's your role at the company, you're also very familiar with all of the company's acquisitions and any sort of legal hurdles the might be facing in the near- or long-term. I think you'd be surprised by how frequently some major companies acquire other companies. The more frequent the transactions the more you're probably also working with and getting to know the C-Suite or other key members across the organization, much moreso than someone who is the counsel for distribution, sales and marketing of key products who probably just deals with legal personnel.

Even day-to-day, M&A lawyers are going to have more access and communication with a company's accounting, tax, finance, etc. corporate departments, many of which will have powerful stakeholders in the company (who might champion you for senior legal department roles), than the job you mentioned, which likely deals mostly with the marketing folks. While the CMO is likely an important friend to have, I'd probably rather know the VP of ACcounting, VP of Tax, Treasurer, CFO, etc. of the company.

This all makes sense. Thanks!