SKIN
IN THE
GAME
in-hOuse cOunsel are asking Their
eXTernal cOunsel TO play By differenT
rules These days.
By Jennifer BrOwn
C
omplex litigation has traditionally been viewed as a team sport, largely waged by
one external law firm's roster of top litigators versus another. The battle was
funded by the companies who engaged them and few asked many questions
about how the job would get done. In some cases that's still the way the game is played
but over the last few years, especially at the banks and insurance companies, as the
pressure has built to bring legal costs under control, corporate legal departments have
been asking their external firms to come up with creative ideas to keep the bills more
predictable. That means the team now involves the in-house counsel to a far greater
degree and they are making more decisions around the rules of engagement and how
the firms are ultimately compensated for the work they do and the playbooks they
put forward.
The law group at RBC has been a major proponent of seeking creative ways to engage
external counsel in a new conversation about managing complex litigation files, fueled in
part by initiatives spearheaded by the Association of Corporate Counsel. "It depends
what title you want to put on it — alternative arrangements or value billing — we have
done it and believe it can be applied to any legal retainer," says Peter Gutelius, the
Christine LonsdaLe
McCarthy tétrault LLP
20
•
ju n e 2013
INHOUSE
