Outside Counsel : Effective Engagement and Management by In-House Counsel

Panelists will provide guidance on working more effectively with outside counsel from the perspective of the business, its in-house counsel, and outside counsel. Topics that will be explored include the factors that should be considered when evaluating, selecting, and retaining outside counsel, dimensioning the scope of work and the legal staffing, negotiating and agreeing on fee arrangements (including traditional and/or alternative fee structures, and budgeting of legal costs), establishing communication and working guidelines and project management principles for the provision of legal services, determining the allocation of legal work between external and in-house counsel, evaluating the quality of legal services (including any "post mortem" analysis) and providing feedback to external counsel, and in certain circumstances, replacing outside counsel. This panel will help guide in-house lawyers and the businesses they support to manage their outside counsel more effectively and to build strong and lasting long term relationships with their outside counsel.