Legal Commentary

Finding Value: Hopefully We Won't Need To Build A New Hubble Telescope

By Patrick J. Lamb

Mike Dillon, the General Counsel of Sun Microsystems, writes a blog called the legal thing ... by Mike Dillon.  Recently, Mike participated in a focus group meeting held by the Association of Corporate Counsel. These focus groups were pulled together to discuss ACC's return to value program that will be launched this fall.   Mike wrote of his thoughts on the meeting in his post, Finding Value, which I strong encourage you to read in its entirety.

The one part of the post I want to comment on is the part of in-house legal departments. 

"We need to stop complaining and be part of the solution.  This includes not just considering, but engaging firms that provide alternatives to the traditional legal services model."

Of course I agree with that notion.  Valorem is doing great, but we are always in search of opportunities.  But the point of this blog is not to promote Valorem, but to promote ideas.  And so I want to make a couple of suggestions for in-house legal departments.  You have tools and skilled personnel in areas that law firms (especially smaller ones) don't, and those people could help your law firms perform better for you.  For example, training lawyers on project management skills would help lawyers provide better budgets.  If you use procurement specialists, learning how to look at pricing can't help but yield more informed pricing.  I could go on, but you get the drift.  Outside counsel face many challenges and some will become part of the solution and some won't.  But inside counsel should think about the training they can help provide that will improve skill sets that will, in the end, yield better service and greater value.  The need is great enough that there's plenty for all of us to contribute and still not satiate the need.

Oh, and the name for this post?  My hope that finding real value throughout the profession won't be like having to launch a telescope into space to see the stars.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on August 22, 2008 (boomark / email).