At a retreat a year ago, I learned about an arrangement that deserves mention. According to one of the lawyers at the retreat, the American Red Cross law department has chosen one person from each of its major client groups to be a member of what they call a “think tank.”
Without recalling more from the retreat, I can imagine that such a client think-tank would give a law department an opportunity to drill down into client satisfaction issues, understand better clients’ forward thinking on business plans, test ideas such as charging back for some tasks or setting up service level agreements, and generally become closer to and more familiar with the business. If the client members of the think tank rotated through the position, even better.