Rather than paraphrase, here is the surprising quote from an interview with the former general counsel of Bombardier: The Canadian company’s GC “requires key firms that work with his law department [to] invest in whatever systems they need to provide the Bombardier law department with the data and information it needs – at no cost to Bombardier. This should be part of how the firm does business.” Quite an in-your-face position!
This provocative quote is found in the ACC Docket, Sept. 2010 at Supp. 8. Its premise stands up acceptably – expect more from you primary firms – but its scope troubles. No law firm can genuinely commit to invest from its own purse in whatever software capabilities a client would like. Such an open-ended promise should alarm the partnership (See my post of Aug. 4, 2008: interventions with three posts and 40 references.).