distance can lead to fissures in the orga-
nizational structure, with lawyers in local
departments—if left unchecked—oper-
ating in a vacuum. And that’s not taking
into account the aggressive governance
rules that have been put in place across
a number of jurisdictions, which can be
quite a headache.
Yet a growing number of general coun-
sel are taking on the challenge. Three
the global credit crisis and recession has
redrawn the client-lawyer relationship,
with in-house legal departments actively
reducing the work sent to outside law
firms and “insourcing” more of it in-house
in order to drive down legal costs.
[Organizations can] save more than 50
cents on the dollar by having [some] work
done internally compared to sending it out.
back-to-back international surveys pub-
lished recently by major accounting and
consulting firm Deloitte, by Eversheds
LLP, one of the world’s largest law firms,
and the Australian Corporate Lawyers
Association and the Corporate Lawyers
Association of New Zealand reveal that
the recession. Emboldened by their en-
hanced status and disillusioned with ever
increasing legal fees charged by law firms,
it is no wonder then that more than half
of general counsel surveyed by Eversheds
believe that the capabilities of in-house
legal departments will grow over the next
five years. With business continuing to
look for new opportunities, in spite of
the difficult economic times, the trend
towards expanding in-house legal depart-
ments abroad will likely accelerate.
Lobl Mediation
Extensive experience in:
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udolph Lob R l, Q C.
Lobl Mediation & Arbitration Services
1200 Bay Street, Suite 405
Toronto, ON M5R 2A5
T: 416-367-5550 ext. 22
E:
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