The phrase ‘work smarter, not harder’ may be reminiscent of the sort of glib mantra that once gave management consultants a bad name – the rather patronising implication being that employees could become so much more productive if only they would give a bit more thought to their work processes. But, for the in-house lawyers among the panellists at Martindale-Hubbell’s latest Counsel to Counsel forum, held in Singapore, the opportunity to meet their counterparts to exchange ideas and share best practice on such a theme was just too good to miss.
The initial discussion revealed the pressures many were feeling in the post-Enron era. As economic conditions have tightened in many markets, departmental budgets are more tightly controlled than ever, while workloads have increased, markedly so in the areas of risk management, compliance and corporate governance. With reams of legislation complicating the regulatory environment of just about every significant jurisdiction, in-house counsel are being asked to ‘do more with less’ by their employers just to keep on top of it all.
