Virtually every general counsel in a recent survey said they’re unhappy with at least some of their alliances with outside counsel, but there are ways to build this relationship so it works better, veteran in-house legal leaders say. 

Start by using outside help only for niche areas of law and keep your core work in-house, Ashlin Quirk, general counsel at Axiom, an alternative legal services provider, said in a webcast. 

“There’s a misperception the law firm is going to be faster, but that’s actually never been my experience,” Quirk said in the webcast, hosted by Axiom. “Despite the fact they seem to have teams of associates available, unless you’re a bigger client, I just don’t get the turnaround time that my own in-house team provides.”

Quirk said her background is in privacy law but she taught herself employment law so she could do that work herself and not have to rely on outside counsel for something that’s important like that but not core to the business.

“You have to be comfortable being a little uncomfortable,” she said. “You’ll be asked to do different things.”

Relying on your team members to do more legal work can be challenging when you’re facing budget cuts, so it becomes crucial for general counsel to be firm with C-suite colleagues that their team should no longer do low-level work that others could be doing themselves. 

“A lot of things end up in legal that don’t necessarily require legal skill and advice,” Quirk said. “Legal resources are expensive resources, so when thinking about the best and highest use of that asset, maybe it’s not best for legal to be doing certificates of insurance, for example. We’ve been doing this to be nice, but we’re thinking of buckling down to our core function, so we have to find a new home for that.”

You have to pave the way before you hand off work to others by having frank conversations with your colleagues on the executive team, said Andrew Stephens, general counsel at MongoDB. 

“‘Here’s what budget cuts mean, so your team has to step up and not rely on us as much as they have in the past,’” said Stephens, suggesting how a conversation with a colleague should go.

Axiom survey data found that the budget for the typical in-house operation has been cut by 11% this year, making it imperative in-house teams focus only on core legal work if they’re going to provide the most value with fewer resources. 

For many in-house teams, core legal work means getting commercial contracts closed as quickly as possible, said Stephens. 

Automation can play a role, but except for some contract management applications, a lot of legal technology today doesn’t live up to the hype, the legal leaders said. 

“I’ve not seen any tools that would bring in savings that would allow me to reduce headcount or not grow headcount,” said Quirk.  

AI-powered tools show promise but only for simple work, at least until the technology matures. “For lower-end agreements like NDAs, you can certainly build in the key knowledge, like your standard provisions, but if the [contract] doesn’t get agreed to in that form, someone still has to step in and negotiate,” Quirk said. 

What’s more, technology is always more expensive than it seems at first look, because it requires a multi-year commitment, and that can ramp up costs quickly. 

“If I’m spending, say, $200,000 [for a tech application] and committing to a three-year subscription, that’s $600,000,” said Stephens. “That’s a lawyer I could otherwise hire. So, I’m thinking of the tradeoffs there. I’d rather have someone who’s flexible and can learn different things.”

Alternative legal service providers can play a role, by giving general counsel the option of bringing in experienced attorneys to handle non-core areas of legal work or supplement the team during a crunch period without having to hire a full-time, permanent person. But if you go this route, you should try to interview several people, not just one person, and proceed as if you’re hiring a permanent person. “It’s someone you need to rely on,” said Stephens. 

Quirk said she brought in temporary help to handle legal work related to corporate governance so her permanent team can focus on core legal work. 

“Corporate governance has to be done,” she said. “It takes a great deal of time, but it doesn't add a lot of value day-to-day from a revenue or sales perspective. By moving this over here, it freed up someone on the team to do sales agreements.”

To get the right people, you don’t want the candidates to come in and drive the process. “It’s not, ‘What can they provide to me?’” said Brittany Leonard, general counsel at Civix. Rather, you want to know beforehand what skills you’re looking for and what they’ll be doing, she said.  

All of these things – doing more work in-house, bringing in technology or working with an alternative legal services provider – can help you do more with less, but there are times you still must work with an outside law firm. When that’s the case, make sure your relationship is with the lawyer you work with and not the law firm. 

“You can fall in a trap,” said Stephens. “A lawyer leaves the firm, and you stay with the firm and expect the same thing, but it’s individualized. I did that before. You stay with the firm and you’re suddenly unhappy. If a lawyer leaves, reevaluate. It doesn’t mean you have to leave as well, but use it as an opportunity to reevaluate the relationship.”

“I made this mistake,” said Quirk. “I was just trying to hit the easy button and use firm x for everything in Europe on this reduction in force we were doing, country by country. I got a variety of output, some good, some bad. You can’t really do it that way. Really, you have to pick the lawyer who’s going to work on your matter and not the firm.”