With a growing need for legal services, especially in government compliance work, corporations are bulking up their general counsel staffs while spending more on outside lawyers, a national survey shows.
Though the increases are incremental, they are notable because outside hiring usually goes down as in-house staffs increase. This year, there seems a more focused assessment of need. “Law departments are trying to find areas of practice where they can add the most value to their corporation – and bringing in a specialist can do that, as long as the economics of internalizing the work justify it,” said Daniel DiLucchio, editor of the 2007 Chief Legal Officer Survey by Altman Weil Inc. and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell.
