Why being a good in-house lawyer isn’t enough. Paul Hughes presents the case for evolutionary change
In-house lawyer numbers are on the increase in an ever more challenging environment. Evolution tells us that population growth means more variations adapting and outperforming others.This increase in diversity in the in-house population means greater numbers are delivering services which add more value...and they are getting noticed.
Why? As organisations seek greater competitive advantage in challenging global markets, in-house legal teams need to offer new ways to compete. In 2010 a Nabarro LLP report supported this, highlighting increased CEO expectations for in-house legal teams to help deliver an “edge” over rivals.
In-house teams not adapting to this changing environment may end up extinct—or “outsourced”—over the next decade. This has already started in the US, where a growing number of legal firms offer an outsourced “one-stop shop”. Where regulations allow, this is an attractive option if the existing team is not perceived as a “strategic asset” and remains instead an overhead. This has been happening across most organisational functions for decades and the in-house legal is no
