As pressure mounts for corporate America to do more with less, general counsel and in-house teams are under increasing pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Progressive law departments continue to bring more legal functions in-house and to use outside counsel less and with greater precision. Forward-thinking GCs operate their departments with the same focus and discipline as their counterparts in business units. Just as world-class manufacturing companies use nimble technology, strategic sourcing agreements and workflow and project management to make and deliver their products, now, some law departments are doing the same. These departments no longer “farm out” most of their corporate and commercial legal work to outside firms. Instead, they use law firms for highly specialized work that is impractical to bring into an internal legal function.
Companies are hesitant to bring litigation work inside because it can be resource-intensive, and most law departments do not have the head count to support it. However, many of today’s law departments are generating efficiencies by taking a more active role in litigation management. They are creating litigation teams built around outside counsel, outsourced technology providers and interim staffing and other alternative legal services providers. The GC and his or her law department are the architects of custom-built litigation teams.
