European In-House College 2010 addresses challenges of leading an in-house legal team

How to organise an in-house legal team and add more value to the business was the challenge for participants attending this year´s European In-House College, held in February in Madrid.

Over 70 General Counsel attended the two day event – organised byIberian Lawyer’s In-House Club and ESADE Law School – which providedtraining on the leadership skills and business knowledge for bettermanaging the legal function.

The programme was led by Des O’Connell, a member of the in-house groupat Sherwood PSF Consulting in London, and Jeremy Ogden the formerGeneral Counsel for Global Retail and Commercial Banking at BarclaysBank where he was also Deputy General Counsel for the whole bank. Managing the costs of external lawyers was a major theme of thesessions, with panel members noting a move away from billable hours forhigh value work. “At the end of the day we all know that the billable hour – with thetaxi meter concept – is not positive for us,” said one panel member. Like others, his request to external advisers was “no surprisesplease”. Experienced and capable law firms should be able to determinehow much work a particular matter will require and be able to keep tothe price estimates given. 

A common theme throughout the discussions was that General Counsel participants had been requesting a reduction in law firm rates forlower value work, since the onset of the economic downturn, but had not yet looked for deep discounts for the highest value, most strategic,work. “You have to strike a balance on fees,” suggested one panel member, “Ifyou pay too low a figure, there is a risk that law firms will not bemotivated and you will not get a good service.”“You cannot ask for discounts on premium work, some things are simply less price senstitive,” stated another.

Some in-house lawyers said they meet regularly with their externallawyers to ask if the work is profitable for them, although some otherlawyers said that this was not appropriate. “It is a question of personal relationships with your contact partnerat the firm, and it is not for me to ask if their firm is able tomanage this work profitably,” said one.Participants also shared their experiences regarding innovative ways tomanage external fees. One international business said they provided afinancial incentive to law firms for settling and reducing the numberof outstanding disputes, while another paid an agreed annual fee evenif the hours worked was less than expected, as an incentive to managethe work more efficiently.

In a change from previous years, participants also benefited from aseries of briefings on strategic legal challenges from law firmsCuatrecasas, KPMG, Uría Menéndez and Herbert Smith. Two further law firms, Allen & Overy and Broseta, contributed to aScholarship Programme to support the participation of leading in-houselawyers.

Participants included lawyers from some of the largest in-house legalteams in Spain and Portugal including Agbar, Altadis, Banesto, Brisa,Merrill Lynch, Banco Popular, Cepsa, Cintra, Gamesa, Gas Natural -Unión Fenosa, General Electric,  Grupo Santander, Iberdrola, Indra, NHHoteles, Prosegur, Siemens and Telefónica.

For further information on the programme and photos of the European In-House College 2010 click here