If you want to create a support network of in-house counsel, you can do so at almost any level and by almost any membership criteria (See my posts in 2005 of Feb. 20 and March 24 listing various groups for general counsel (GC100), Sept. 17 about the Wisconsin GC Forum, and Sept. 27 about the In-House Lawyers Association (IHLA) in the UK after a split with the Law Society’s Commerce & Industry Group (C&I Group)).
To this collection of networking opportunities, I add the Private Equity Lawyers Forum (PELF), which has nearly 70 members in the UK and a sister organization in the US called the Venture Capital General Counsel Group. PELF meets four times a year in addition to a day-long conference (Legal Week, Dec. 1, 2005 at 66).
For in-house lawyers who do not have colleagues to reach out to, these groups – or groups they might start themselves – can be invaluable. I suspect law firms could underwrite specialized groups of in-house counsel and benefit from the marketing opportunities.