LAW DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT
Managing workloads can be a challenge for in-house counsel, but external options are growing. By Daryl-Lynn Carlson
The primary purpose of in-house counsel is to ensure the entity
for which they work has minimal expo- sure to legal issues in all aspects of its business operations. And few can dispute how busy the work lives of in- house lawyers are, regardless of the size of the legal department. So when legal issues come across the
desk of in-house lawyers that require either a considerable amount of time, or that broach an area of expertise outside
of their own, they have to seek assistance from a private law firm. An outside legal opinion is particularly valuable in mat- ters that require objectivity such as a court case or in a regulatory issue. Most in-house counsel also find it
valuable to seek outside law firm assis- tance for significant projects such as mergers and acquisitions, specialized liti- gation, tax issues, class action lawsuits, and other matters where the lawyers within the department are either too
outsource When to
busy to dedicate the time that is required to resolve the matter, or it requires a lawyer whose practice is focused on a specific area of expertise. At the same time, most in-house
law departments have either reduced or are very selective about what type of legal matters they need to retain out- side advice based on budgetary consid- erations. These days, most in-house law department budgets are closely scruti- nized, requiring them to seek outside
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