In-house leaders from Oracle Corp., Facebook Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. shared their job stressors and outside counsel pet peeves at a Tuesday evening Association of Business Trial Lawyers Northern California chapter event.

More than 100 Bay Area lawyers attended the “Sleepless Nights in Silicon Valley” event in Woodside, which included dinner and drinks before a panel with the three in-house counsel, moderated by Northern District of California Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.

Kim first probed the panelists—Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley, Juniper Networks general counsel Brian Martin and Facebook deputy general counsel Paul Grewal—on what outside counsel behaviors have made an impression.

Dorian Daley, Oracle.

Martin said while firms may rush toward new strategies to woo clients, many legal departments still struggle with “basic surface level” issues from their outside counsel, such as lack of responsiveness or problems with billing.

“I don't really think that we have [the] outside counsel-inside counsel relationship down,” Martin said. While innovative firms are impressive, he said the best solution for client relationship issues is to “talk more,” with open communications lines and feedback flowing.

Daley and Grewal echoed this. But Grewal said “few firms” ask him granular questions about their lawyers' performance in deposition or other legal matters. The ones that do stand out.

Feedback can go both ways, Daley said, and she seeks outside counsel who can provide “frank” and “constant communication.” Those open communication lines best flow when outside and in-house counsel develop a strong relationship, she noted. Firms that find ways to include her team in meaningful events or show that they're paying attention to Oracle's specific legal needs are on the right track.

“It's inviting us to some of the forums that the firm is participating in, events it's having with its first- and second-year associates. … It may be coming in and having a conversation with us about a particular area of the law that they know is impactful to me,” Daley said. She also suggested firms and in-house counsel collaborate on legal tech experimentation.

In keeping with the evening's theme, the three in-house leaders also shared what work issues keep them up at night.

Grewal's top stressor stemmed back to outside counsel communication. At Facebook, his legal team deals with cases around the world, and pursuing an outcome to appease regulators in one jurisdiction could hurt a pending case happening somewhere else.

Outside counsel who don't take a holistic look at Facebook's legal strategy and business goals could wind up causing long-term damage for a short-term win in one jurisdiction. Grewal said he's open with firms about these concerns.

“The opportunity to step in it on one case to the detriment of our position in others is pretty high,” Grewal said.

For Martin, sleepless nights are filled with worries over public policy changes that come “at the speed of tweets,” making it difficult in some cases for his legal team to plan ahead as much as they normally would. Daley said she usually isn't kept up at night because, as general counsel, she aims to “stay calm” and lead the business and her legal team with a clear head, whatever issues arise.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of Juniper Networks Inc.