A network is a set of interconnected people who can communicate with each other, share information and achieve results that would be hard, if not impossible, to do if the network did not exist. Every law department, therefore, meets those criteria for a network. Network mavens would view a legal department as made up of “nodes” — people or groups of people who deal with other people as part of providing legal services. They would depict those relationships as “links” between the nodes (sometimes called “edges”). Four parts of the definition first given contain the gist of it. Networks are (1) interconnected — participants (nodes) can reach each other; (2) those participants communicate and transmit information back and forth (links); (3) information is whatever reduces uncertainty and helps a participant make a decision; and (4) alternative substitutes for the network are much less effective, if they serve at all.

In the law department world, there are many examples of people in networks. Listservs for in-house counsel, through which users posted and answered questions online, were early networks; Web town-hall meetings are current versions. A center of excellence, a project team or the patent group form other kinds of networks. Generally, outside counsel do not make up a network since the firms do not regularly communicate with each other. A panel forms a wheel around the spoke of the law department. However, there are exceptions: Key law firms that remain after a convergence program might communicate somewhat with each other.

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