Daily Diary

Touching the void

Posted 8/11/2006 by legalweekblogs.com SU

Shock research this month from the bean-counters extraordinaire at Grant Thornton reveals a worrying new trend that could make firms across the City rue letting that chap in litigation into the partnership a few years ago.

According to the accountancy group’s startling new survey, in-house counsel are now looking to – wait for it – reduce their legal spend, perhaps having decided that if their companies stopped giving mountains of cash to lawyers in private practice their own salaries might not lag quite so far behind.

Showing the kind of mental agility that makes the term ‘corporate counsel’ a byword for innovative thinking, top in-housers are now trying to avoid being sued – rather than defaming customers and mis-selling products with reckless abandon, before wading into the fray waving claims and counter-claims in each others’ faces.

‘Dispute avoidance’, this strange phenomenon is called.

According to the survey, which also reveals that certain key Vatican personnel are Catholic and turkeys prefer Halloween to Christmas, law firms are not doing enough to help clients avoid disputes before they happen.

“One point to consider would be a Clementi-style model, whereby lawyers work alongside non-lawyers to provide a similar service,” says Grant Thornton partner Toni Pincott.

Hmm. Lawyers…working with companies…almost ‘in-house’, you might say. They may just be on to something there.