Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel.

• Author: Sundberg, Alan C.
• Position: Review

Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel by Robert L. Haig, Editor-in-Chief

The opening sentence of the forward to this publication proclaims:

Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel is a unique publication that will transform the way legal services are provided to corporations by both their inside and outside counsel.

Although I found this statement to be a bit extravagant, nonetheless, I do believe this work is a valuable tool for lawyers who perform legal services for corporations, whether in the public or private sector, and whether as inside or outside counsel.

I come from the vantage point of having served as in-house general counsel for a large public university for over three years after having spent the majority of my 43 years at the bar as outside counsel to public companies ranging from financial institutions to construction and manufacturing companies. As general counsel for the university one of my first tasks was to consider the organization and possible reorganization of the law department. A number of the chapters in this publication would have been of substantial aid to me in that undertaking. For example, an initial question to be resolved was whether to enlarge the law department to address more of the university's legal issues in-house or whether to continue significant use of outside counsel, particularly in the area of litigation. The considerations involved in such a decision are well explicated in the chapter entitled "The Make or Buy Decision."

A related chapter entitled "Optimizing the Number of Outside Counsel Through Convergence and Partnering Strategies," deals with the number and kind of outside counsel a corporation may wish to employ for optimal results. The authors relate how the "continuous quality improvement management philosophy" emerged in business circles during the decade of the nineties and how it has impacted the relationship with outside corporate counsel. The foundation for this philosophy is that customer satisfaction provides the standard for quality. The treatise explains how the adaptation of that philosophy to corporate legal representation changed the policy of numerous law departments which in the 1980s had utilized episodic, nonstable supplier relationships to rein in legal costs. In place of that practice "continuous quality improvement management" indicated that corporations move toward relatively stable, long term relationships with only a few outside...