The Need for Virtual Counsel I founded Virtual In-House Counsel with the goal of providing business clients with critical corporate legal services replicating, as much as possible, the methods, approach, and style of an in-house law department. In doing so, I have drawn upon my extensive in-house experience, having served in multiple senior in-house capacities, to advise business executives on the wide range of corporate, commercial, and regulatory challenges they confront.
My experience, which includes having served as chief counsel and corporate secretary for a publicly traded company with global operations, enables me to offer my clients a unique and invaluable perspective: I too have been the client. Thus, I understand first-hand how in-house attorneys function and respond in today's high-pressured, "instant answer" environment and, accordingly, what they require from their outside attorneys in order to meet the escalating demands of management, stakeholders, and regulators.
While in-house, I witnessed a growing divide between what inside counsel sought in terms of outside legal support and the means and methods by which outside counsel provided it. This division appears to be wide spread: in a 2005 nationwide study by BTI Consulting Group, only 30% percent of chief legal officers (CLOs) expressed satisfaction with their primary outside law firms. The 2006 Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) survey of over 200 legal departments shows outside counsel falling short of in-house expectations in the following five areas:
The 2007 ACC survey of CLOs shows more of the same: only 16% of CLOs reported improved relations with their outside counsel from the prior year. Their top concern remains billing rates and fee structures. All too familiar with these frustration points, I have structured my practice to enable me to represent clients more economically and efficiently, and as if seated on the inside -- as a virtual member of their in-house team. |
