The year 2010 is shaping up to be a “best of times, worst of times” year for general counsel. On the one hand, GCs — and the senior lawyers and professionals who help them lead their law departments — are under extraordinary pressure to reduce costs. Of course, there is nothing new in the expectation that in-house lawyers should “do more with less.” It has been expressed repeatedly over the past two decades, especially in times of economic distress. What is new is the extent to which law departments have been forced to reduce total legal costs and to find new ways to operate more efficiently.
Still, the need for an effective in-house legal function has never been greater. Organizations face growing risk and increasing pressure from many different directions — shareholders, customers, employees, politicians, regulators, the media (in all of its forms) and the general public. Legal, compliance and risk management failures have been escalating, despite significant investment in these functions over the past decade. Most alarming, chief legal officers and other senior inside lawyers have been directly associated with these failings in an unprecedented and unfavorable manner. This threatens to undermine the long-standing reputation of in-house lawyers as “the conscience of the organization.”
