It may seem that some of the articles in this month’s issue of Legal Week Global appear to contradict each other. On the one hand, in-house lawyers at the Counsel to Counsel forum (pages 19 & 21) describe how they are reducing the number of external law firms they use to concentrate on developing deeper relationships with a smaller number of advisers.
On the other, the recent tobacco litigation in Australia (pages 22 & 24) saw the judge criticise the close links between British American Tobacco (BAT) and its external legal advisers “which had the potential for blurring the roles and responsibilities of the lawyers”, before striking out BAT’s defence in the case.
