Until I spoke recently with Elizabeth Chambliss, a professor at NY Law School, I had only thought of law firms, some of the large ones at least, as having a single (and perhaps part-time) “general counsel” (See my post of Sept. 22, 2006: general counsel of law firms.). Chambliss mentioned that a number of the sprawling firms have multiple in-house lawyers, some of whom resolve conflicts issues.
It makes sense. If you have 2,000-some practicing lawyers around the globe, you spawn enough legal issues to feed a group of out-house in-house lawyers. Wait until law firms go public!
Ironically, this blog’s coverage of how law departments supervise law firms may also provide guidance to the internal law departments of those very same firms.