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5 THINGS | Make Corporate Counsels’ Dreams Come True

 

FROM: July/August 2004, PAGE 7 BY: Ann Lee Gibson
  1. As outside counsel, thoroughly commit to understanding the client company’s business, industry and goals.
     
  2. Make your motto “No Surprises.” Tell corporate counsel before the fact about necessary staffing changes, budget variances and new strategies.
     
  3. Align your pricing with the value of the legal work that you are asked to handle.
     
  4. Implement a compensation system that rewards lawyers for providing superlative service to the client company—not for logging the most hours they can or managing the relationship to their greatest benefit.
     
  5. Carefully consider the sources of the company’s legal problems and recommend creative solutions that will make corporate counsel look good inside the company and the industry.

Ann Lee Gibson, PhD ( agibson@annleegibson.com), is principal of Ann Lee Gibson Consulting in West Plains, MO.