By: ED POLL//September 19, 2011//
Priorities between corporate clients and lawyers often diverge on controlling costs, but if both sides come prepared to work together, common ground can be easier to find.
Detailed and clear communication will help create a mutually beneficial relationship that is cost-effective for the client, yet profitable for the firm.
For best results, in-house counsel should make clear all expectations and objectives to outside counsel right at the start. Draw up a checklist that covers both qualitative issues and procedural details in such a way that outside counsel clearly knows how the client defines fundamental satisfaction. Only then can the relationship be mutually satisfactory and successful.
Checklists should cover these items:
It is essential that the corporate client knows what their outside lawyer is doing and that the client approves of the tactics taken to achieve the client’s strategy or goal. By making clear all expectations and objectives right at the start of any relationship, in-house counsel give their outside lawyers as much information as possible about the goals, anticipated strategies, desired outcomes and anticipated operating guidelines for the upcoming engagement.
Making clear the client’s objectives and setting forth how to meet them are essential to securing the value the corporate world wants from outside counsel.