I suppose that the old cliche about a lawyer who represents himself having a fool for a client is even more compelling when a law firm represents itself. Generally when a law firm is sued for malpractice, the firm retains outside counsel. However, what about the day to day problems that (hopefully) never become claims? Who handles those? Jeff Lipshaw (Legal Profession Blog) posts today about a new article by Elizabeth Chambliss (a former professor of mine) on SSRN: The Professionalization of Law Firm In-House Counsel. The article notes the increase in professional, full-time general counsel appointed from outside the firm and analyzes the implications on norms and ethical rules of a network of law firm in-house counsel.
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1. Posted by D. Daniel Sokol on October 23, 2006 @ 11:40 | Permalink
This goes hand-in-hand with the increased professionalization of the legal industry in others areas. For example, most law firms have marketing departments (some staffed with MBAs). Additionally, many of the largest law firms have a non-lawyer CFO and business manager to run the day-to-day operations of the law firm. Twenty years ago, few large firms (large by the standard of 20 years ago) had anyone involved in marketing and I suspect that in nearly all firms, the managing partner (generally a practicing lawyer) made the day-to-day business decisions.
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