It may be futile. No matter how much a law department strives to increase client satisfaction, shave costs, sculpt processes, and push shoulder-to-shoulder with clients, the department will not earn enough respect if in-house counsel can’t offer clients the attorney-client privilege. Lacking that shield of protection, that encouragement to clients…
A redoubtable law department GC, recently arrived from a major law firm, takes the position that the law department should do whatever helps its clients. He was glad to handle stock option processing and contract administration, for example, because lawyers do it better than anyone else in the company. I…
“The GC should also evaluate the Board to make sure members properly understand and exercise their fiduciary duties.” This comment from a participant in the Nov. 2005 Third General Counsel Roundtable of the Economist Conferences (at 21) was followed by a suggestion: There are surveys that can help the senior…
No surprise that we hear over and over about how important it is to tell business executives about legal costs the law department will incur on their behalf. These forecasts honor the Golden Rule and keep managers in the loop. To tell the senior manager about anticipated legal costs does…
The most compelling reason for a law department to tell clients about its services is to fulfill its role – to help the business succeed and reduce legal risks. So preventive law training programs may have the effect of marketing but the purpose of role-accomplishment (See my post of April…
In-house counsel will be valued increasingly for their admixture of business insight and legal judgment. If that prediction bears out, then one consequence, overlooked in the clamor to have in-house counsel demonstrate more business understanding and commercial competence, is that business executives who rely on those lawyers will evaluate their…
Back in the day, the fin de last siècle, many of the larger law departments prepared and distributed to their clients what were generally called newsletters. The typical newsletter had a couple of success stories that patted the law department on the back, a profile of one of the lawyers,…
You just never know when a catastrophe might befall your company, so a number of law departments have prepared a business continuity plan. These plans explain what members of the department should do if there is a major incident, such as terrorism or earthquake, that renders your normal office inaccessible.…
In February 2006, Mahlab Recruitment and Harris Cost Lawyers surveyed the members of the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association (ACLA). The survey found that almost a third of the law departments charge costs to their business units. About 17 percent charge by hourly bills at a single hourly rate; another 20…
What kind of work does a client generate? What is the volume? Who at the client group tends to call us? A law department that researches, ponders, and answers these questions will be able to create client profiles. Having done so, the department could segment client groups into categories, such…