Optimising relationships with external counsel

On 8 November, Blake Morgan hosted two roundtable discussions at The Lawyer In-house Counsel as Business Partner conference on the important topic of optimising relationships with external counsel. Our roundtables brought together GCs and senior legal counsel from a range of businesses to share views, experiences and ideas on how to make the most of their relationships with external lawyers.

The key themes of our discussions were:

Value

The future of the billable hour came into question again with many legal teams moving towards pricing models which provide greater certainty and transparency of costs from the outset. There was also discussion around linking costs more closely to the underlying value and importance of a piece of work to the business.

The roundtables also explored the impact of rising inflation and salaries and whether these costs were being passed on by their external law firms. Fortunately, the general view was that charge out rates had not increased at the same rate as NQ salaries but questions were still asked about the sustainability of private practice salaries and whether there was better value to be found outside US and Magic Circle firms.

Building trusted relationships

Building strong relationships with trusted advisors who understand their business remains a top priority for GCs, with in-house legal teams prepared to invest the time and effort in educating their panel firms about their business. This investment allows for more efficient working practices and provides a platform for external firms to provide more targeted and relevant value adds such as bespoke training for the wider business or horizon scanning for legal developments directly relevant to the business.

ESG

The message was loud and clear from the GCs at the roundtables in that they expect their external law firms to walk the talk when it comes to ESG matters, specifically when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Law firms should expect to be benchmarked on an ongoing basis and be ready to provide data not just on a firm wide basis but on the individuals working on client accounts.

The need to encourage more diversity in the legal sector was a consistent theme during the roundtables with everyone recognising that this was a responsibility of the whole legal profession. Rather than just being a metric for appointing panel firms, in-house legal departments and external law firms should be looking for ways to partner together on joint initiatives to make a greater impact on diversifying the pipeline of those seeking to enter the legal profession.

Thank you to all of our roundtable attendees who provided such an interesting and dynamic discussion.