Outside counsel with insight into pending legislation in the communications law sphere are in high demand among top in-house counsel of some of the largest media companies in the nation.

The lawyers who represent Facebook, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Discovery Inc. and Vox Media spilled the beans about what they want in outside counsel during a session Friday at the American Bar Association Forum on Communications Law in Austin.

1. Track bills

So often, troubling bills pop up and fail, only to pop up again, that it's like a game of whack-a-mole, said James A. McLaughlin, The Washington Post's deputy general counsel and director of government affairs in Washington, D.C.. He said he relies on outside counsel to perform governmental affairs tasks such as lobbying lawmakers and testifying at bill hearings.

Vox Media's Chief Legal Officer, Lauren Fisher of Washington, D.C., said she values outside attorneys who have tracked new bills, guessed their likelihood of passage, and informed her of potential outcomes on her business. She has hired those attorneys for help implementing compliance with new regulations to which they alerted her.

New regulations also worry Andy Mar, director and associate general counsel of Facebook in Menlo Park, Calif. Mar said lawmakers may intend for some new, onerous regulations to only apply to Internet companies such as Facebook, and they do not realize their impact will spread to smaller media organizations and niche publications that lack the resources to comply with the regulations.

2. Keep it brief

When it comes to behavior outside counsel should avoid, Randy Shapiro, global newsroom counsel of Bloomberg In New York, said she has no time to read long legal memos and prefers her outside lawyers to communicate with short, snappy and clear messages.

3. Ask about products

Mar, the Facebook lawyer, who hires outside counsel to help him review new Facebook technology products and highlight potential legal issues, said he's often surprised that those lawyers do not ask more questions about the new technology. It's common that they don't even ask for a password to use a new app that they're reviewing.

Fisher, the Vox Media attorney, echoed the point, explaining that Vox offers some software-as-a-service products, and the outside attorneys she hires for those projects really need to understand the technology before they can answer her legal questions about it. Fisher noted that she's been disappointed in the past when one of the other in-house attorneys on her team first raised a question or issue with a new product, when she felt the outside counsel she hired should have spotted it first.

4. Know what's coming

McLaughlin, the attorney for The Washington Post, said he thinks young attorneys must educate themselves about cutting-edge technology coming out of Silicon Valley in order to become familiar about legal issues they raise. For example, all media law attorneys will have First Amendment expertise, but one who also has experience with coding will stick out.