While sitting at a bad Little League game last night (Cubs vs. Mets; no surprise there), I was comparing lawyer notes with a parent who happens to be outside counsel (though not currently my outside counsel).

The theme of our conversation was that, during my 15-year stint as outside counsel, I thought I was pretty dialed in to my clients' needs. In reality, I probably grasped less than a third of what they were dealing with.

The flip side is that in my experience as inside counsel, we frequently fail to share with outside counsel more than about 70 percent of the requisite facts necessary to really grok and solve the issue being outsourced. While this divide will never be completely bridged, the following are some suggestions for bringing the two sides together: