Corporate Counsel magazine will again honor four in-house law departments in our Best Legal Departments issue that will be published in June 2014. We’re looking for departments that stand apart from the crowd, that serve their internal clients successfully, manage outside counsel effectively and foster a sense of teamwork among their staff.

In order to be considered, you must first complete this preliminary survey. It consists of several basic questions about your company and its law department, followed by an essay that requires a bit more time and effort. While law firms (and others) are welcome to email us names and contact information of departments they consider worthy—and/or to forward this note to their in-house partners and urge them to apply—only the department itself will be able to complete the survey.

Nominees must answer all questions, including the essay, to be considered, and we ask that companies submit only one completed survey.

Eligibility: We are eager to consider a wide variety of nominees, ranging from departments at Fortune 500 companies to those at smaller companies and nonprofits (including colleges and universities). Lawyers who work in government agencies, however, are not eligible.

Law departments that have been recognized as our Best Legal Departments are not eligible to apply again for five years—so only those chosen before 2009 can seek recognition this year. All departments that have been named as finalists, however, are eligible to apply as often as they wish.

Extended Deadline: Please submit the completed survey by Jan. 15, 2014.

In late January or early February, we will select finalists. We don’t have a quota, but we expect there could be as many as 20. Each finalist will then be asked to complete a more detailed questionnaire. Our staff will select the honorees based on these submissions along with our own research.

Stories about the four departments will be featured in our June issue. We will also publish shorter articles about the other finalists in subsequent issues.

Survey and Contact: Click here to get to the survey, or copy and paste the URL below into your browser:
https://alm.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8bMtEiyWTKgzOuN

Questions? Contact David Hechler, Corporate Counsel’s executive editor ([email protected]).

Thanks in advance for your participation. We will announce the winners in the June 2014 issue of Corporate Counsel and on CorpCounsel.com.