During the past year, in-house counsel at Russia’s major companies have been flexing their muscles, according to a survey by Moscow-based private investment company Interros. An astonishing 50% of the general counsel interviewed for the ‘Improving the in-house counsel/outside counsel relationship’ survey say they terminated their company’s relationship with outside counsel between April last year and April this year, revealing often turbulent relations between client and adviser in Russia.
The companies that took part in the survey list numerous grievances with their estranged law firms. Failure of outside counsel to adequately react to general counsel’s requests comes top of the list, cited by nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents. Poor quality of work ranks as the second grievance, cited by 23% of companies.
