In-House Counsel

A survey conducted by Asian-Counsel e-edition, Vol. 7, July/Aug. at 26, published findings about the factors which most influenced the respondents? choice of outside counsel. Many times I have written about the leading factors (expertise, responsiveness, fees, reputation and the like); only rarely have I mentioned the long tail of other factors. To remedy that slight, here are the ten factors that had the lowest percentage of respondents who chose them. The percentages decline from about 22 percent to about 3 percent.

?Free know-how?; ?Lawyers with certain cultural/language skills?; ?Company list of approved counsel?; ?Brand name of firm?; ?Size of firm?; ?Other reasons?; ?Low turnover?; ?IT utilisation?; ?Reach/office location?; and ?Requirements of insurance company.?

Two comments. Given the polyglot jurisdictions across Asia, lawyers fluent in certain languages would certainly be a plus. Turnover rates stand out for me because I do not know how a legal department could have comparative data; then again, if a firm they are using suffers from chronic exoduses, there is no need for a comparison.