Legal Counsel Basic Net

Representing clients in criminal, civil and other legal proceedings, drafting legal documents or managing or advising clients on legal transactions. May specialize in a single area or practice widely in many areas of law. Lawyers, including in-house lawyers, have a well-deserved reputation for complicating matters. Don`t worry, this is not a sermon. I am in the dock next to you, guilty as hell! Nevertheless, over the course of a long career in law, I have spent time trying to figure out why. Why do lawyers make it so difficult for themselves and their clients? I think it boils down to this: lawyers hate being wrong. No, they fear being wrong, coupled with the belief that if you spend enough time, money, and words on a legal problem, you can find the answer or solve the problem. This explains why lawyers write in a way that no mere mortal understands. We have developed an overly complex grammatical structure that mystifies everyone except those who are reckless enough to dive into the ocean of words, sentences, commas, “Nevertheless”, triple negatives, subdivide, subdivide to subparts, etc. that make up modern contracts. Or why our lawsuit (in the US) is now largely an exercise of trying to get documents from the other party and preventing the other party from receiving your documents and working overtime for the court to sanction the other party for not giving you documents or for trying to receive your documents unfairly, or.

Well, you understand what`s important. As usual, we end the year with an article on the ten best legal blogs for in-house lawyers. I love finding and reading the work of great writers, especially the emerging “next generation.” [1] They have a lot to say and it`s worth reading! Like last year, I`m going to shake things up a bit and add non-traditional bloggers, i.e. podcasts and LinkedIn writers, to my list. I`m also going to (finally) list my “Ten Best Legal Blogs of All Time Hall of Fame” just to give some love to the blogs I still read after many years. [2] Sometimes it`s enough to reward the miraculous nature of staying (isn`t it, baby boomers?)! This edition of “Ten Things” includes my list of the best blogs (and other media) for in-house attorneys for 2021: In 2019, Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) expanded its pro bono program with the support of a transformation grant from the Florida Bar Foundation. Using a hybrid model, the pro bono program focuses on recruiting pro bono co-lawyers who work with SLC on impactful litigation and change the system, while recruiting volunteers for traditional individual representation cases. Other volunteer opportunities include limited representation, brief counselling, advocacy, legal research, and limited litigation assistance. Hello everyone and hello 2022! If you`re a long-time reader of the blog, you know that I like to start January with a list of topics I think in-house counsel should pay attention to over the next year.

[1] This is something I have done every year as a general counsel in different companies. Basically, I kept an eye out for developments, trends, topics (or whatever) that I thought would have the biggest impact on the legal department over the next 12 months. To do this, I talked to internal and external lawyers, read newspapers, blogs, and reports, attended conferences, attended meetings within the company, asked company executives, asked my team what they saw, and simply paid general attention to what was going on around me. When I discovered a potential problem, I looked into it and asked a simple question: How could this impact the business and the legal department? Answering this question meant understanding the company`s goals and strategy in order to identify and manage risk (and improve my ability to be a more strategic partner to the company). [2] Of course, it helps to be naturally curious about what`s going on around you and crave information. Information is gold for in-house lawyers (see my article Ten things in-house lawyers should read every day). From there, I created a list of topics and incorporated them into the objectives and activities of the legal department. As a long-time in-house lawyer, I constantly wonder when to send work to outside lawyers and when to keep it (or bring it back). It was a surprisingly difficult task. As an outside lawyer, I now hope that my clients will want to send more work to me and the firm (hint!).

But my DNA as an in-house lawyer tells me that most general counsel are trying to find ways to keep more work with the legal department. And the data supports me here. Approximately 40% of U.S.-based legal departments have moved their work from external lawyers to in-house. This is an incredible statistic because it means that internal services not only keep their jobs, but also take them back from their outside lawyers more often. While this shift in direction may be primarily driven by fiscal forces, other factors play a role. This brings me to today`s question of “ten things,” i.e. what factors should you consider when deciding when sending work to outside attorneys and, more interestingly, when to bring it back: Southern Legal Counsel, Inc. (SLC) is a Florida nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to the ideal of equal justice for all and the realization of fundamental human and civil rights. SLC primarily assists individuals and groups on matters of public interest who would otherwise not have access to the justice system and whose cases could lead to systemic reforms.