Ron Friedman, the thoughtful author of Prism Legal, took issue with my post (Feb. 5, 2006) about proximity of lawyers on the same floor dramatically boosting interaction.
I don’t agree with his [Rees Morrison’s] conclusion that companies should keep their lawyers on the same floor. If proximity matters so much, then inhouse lawyers should sit near key clients.
More importantly, companies must overcome the geographic bias.
Ron is right. Closeness to the client matters most.
But I actually never recommended ghettoizing lawyers on their own floor. What I meant to point out was that if proximity to clients was not the determinative factor, which it should be, then keep in-house counsel close to each other so they can collaborate better.