Law departments have not lacked for ingenuity when asking law firms to provide services beyond legal advice (See my posts of June 28, 2006 on added-value services – IT support, access to work product, CLE, secondees, extranets, recruitment, and contract tracking; July 21, 2005 with a higher-level listing; and Feb. 25, 2007 about law firm training of in-house counsel.).
Here are some more offerings by firms that departments might explore.
1. Analyze and report internal data (See my post of Nov. 5, 2007 about Cisco and Fenwick & West.).
2. Participate in end-to-end process reviews (See my posts of Oct. 12, 2006 on law firms as consultants; and Dec. 22, 2006 #2.)
3. Provide an office so a law department does not have to rent space for a remote lawyer. I know of an energy company that houses one of its lawyers for free in the offices of a law firm.
4. Recruit and train jointly (See my post of Sept.18, 2006 on Citigroup.).
5. Develop software (See my posts of June 5, 2007 on rules-based guidance; and June 18, 2007 on Proskauer’s initiative.).
6. Create and distribute online TV feeds for CLE training (See my post of May 28, 2007.).
7. Involve in-house lawyers in a training institute, such as the Bernard G. Segal Institute for Appellate Advocacy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US law firm, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis.