John Disney/ALM

Legal departments will likely differ in types of legal work they handle, their technological abilities and their size. But when it comes to hiring outside help, many have the same expectations.

At the “Expectations of Outside Counsel: A General Counsel Perspective” session of ILTACON 2018, three in-house legal professionals from some of the biggest companies in the global economy shed light on how they approach hiring outside counsel, and what they expect from these firms.

For Zabrina Jenkins, managing director of litigation at Starbucks Corp., it's important to hire outside counsel who not only have expertise to match the needs of specific matters at hand, but have attitudes that reflect Starbucks' culture.

“My expectation is that you will present to us the best team that you feel matches our matter, our company and our goals,” she said.

Jenkins noted, for instance, “that diversity is one of the top things that is listed in our outside guidelines. … And I will expect that you will take into consideration that we are a diverse company and serve a diverse community.”

And Starbucks, she said, “isn't just speaking in terms of race and gender.”

“You need to understand that when you come to meet with us that is something we value. And you need to demonstrate why your values link with ours,” Jenkins added.

To be sure, while many legal departments want outside counsel to match their values, what values they stress will inevitably differ. In Microsoft's case, Alonzo Barber, an attorney in Microsoft's legal and corporate affairs group, cited “efficiency and being in lockstep” with how the tech company operates as essential.

“We are moving to be as efficient as possible, so we select outside counsel that have that mindset,” he said.

What's more, Barber expects his outside counsel to be on board with Microsoft's core offerings and business, and types of technology aren't an exception.

“It's ironic to me that some outside counsel that are actually customers of ours aren't implementing these cloud technologies,” he added.

Still, David Kilgore, corporate counsel at cloud computing company Rackspace, cautioned that outside counsel shouldn't be adopting technology just to get business.

“I don't want them going to the cloud because they're going to pitch to Rackspace,” he said.

But that doesn't mean tech ignorance is acceptable either. Rackspace's legal department expects outside counsel to have a deep understanding of technology. “You are looking for that technological competence, and you are looking at them understanding [things like] privacy by design.”

In addition to finding the right cultural and technological fit, for some legal departments, flexible pricing is of importance. “If we're doing kind of rotational work, then we are going to do flat fee,” Kilgore said. “But if we are looking for in-depth analysis and advice on a complex matter, we are more likely to see that as a billable hour.”

The legal department at Starbucks takes a similar approach. “Sometimes it makes sense to do billable hour, and sometimes it makes sense to consider flat fee or hybrid, some alternative to the hourly billable rate situation,” Jenkins said.

She added that it's also helpful if outside counsel works with the legal department to initially figure out how much time and effort a matter will likely take before diving in.

It's important to “have that comfort level on both party's sides to say, 'Let's just invest in 'X dollars' to try to figure out how we need to proceed in this particular matter,'” she added.

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