Law Department Management Blog
One threat law departments always raise when the discussion turns to whether clients should be able to retain lawyers on their own – “Manager X might hire his golf club buddy.” I wonder about this worry, since Manager X has a bottom line to protect, and if golf buddy over-charges or under-delivers, Manager X may end up finding professional fulfillment elsewhere.
Granted, Manager X may not be able to evaluate the value delivered by golf buddy as well as an in-house lawyer might, but inexperience presents a different objection than cronyism. After all, in-house counsel themselves are not immune from favoritism (See my post of Oct. 5, 2010: some ideas for how to base retentions on merit.).