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 to open up to their inside lawyers, law departments in the UK and other countries, including India, will never enjoy the stature of their counterparts elsewhere or their external outside counsel who are cloaked with the privilege (See my posts of July 25, 2005 about European views; Oct. 31, 2005 about the attorney-client privilege as it applies to corporate attorneys; April 2, 2006 and a Lex Mundi survey.).