Managing In-house Legal Services

Overview

In recent years there have been significant changes in:

• How the law and in-house lawyers are perceived by business people;
• Relationships between in-house lawyers and private practitioners and the ability to move between in-house and private practice; and
• Working practices.

As a result it has become increasingly important for heads of legal departments to chart a way forward for the delivery of legal services within the organisation, the development of the team’s performance and their own performance. This report aims to capture the vital elements of effective legal department management and to provide a guide to the busy in-house practitioner, who needs to balance case load with the pressures of managing a department.

This special briefing will benefit:

• Heads of Legal department
• In-house lawyers
• Compliance officers
• Company secretaries

Content

Introduction
Chapter 1 – Establishing an in-house team
Chapter 2 – Getting the balance right between in-house and external resources
Chapter 3 – Aligning legal services with business needs
Chapter 4 – Supporting the compliance effort
Chapter 5 – Staffing the legal service
Chapter 6 – Essential elements for performance
Chapter 7 – Developing the in-house team
Chapter 8 – Raising Legal Awareness
Chapter 9 – Working well within External Advisers
Chapter 10 – What next?
Bibliography
Appendices

The authors

Mark Prebble
During his 21 years as an employed in-house lawyer, Mark worked for ICI and The BOC Group plc in the UK, and Biogen and SGS in Switzerland. He held the positions of General Counsel at SGS and Group Legal Adviser at The BOC Group plc. In 1998 he set up Lawyers in Business, an organisation dedicated to developing, coaching and supporting in-house lawyers and promoting more effective use of legal services by businesses.

Contributions from

Richard Norman
As an international business lawyer, Richard has worked in Europe, Asia and America for four multinational companies. He held the position of Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs for Dell Inc. from 1993 to 2006. He joined Dell from Tektronix, Inc. where he was European Legal Counsel based in Switzerland. Previously he worked for Hoover plc and Grand Metropolitan plc. Richard is a consultant with Lawyers in Business.