The Great Recession has caused many in-house legal departments to either shrink or, at best, remain the same size. The workload, however, has neither contracted nor remained stable. For many in-house departments, it has increased. Requesting additional resources has not been a realistic option.
The only viable alternative is to redeploy the legal resources in a manner that both reduces costs and motivates the legal team. In any economic climate (but especially before the recovery gets underway), retention of the best members of the legal department should be the goal.
