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Credits: 1.5 Ethics & Professionalism Credit Hours
Description: For several decades, corporate law departments have become increasingly assertive in their demands for legal service provided to their companies by outside attorneys. Corporate counsel have been requiring electronic billing, use of task codes for billing, law firms to work collaboratively with other firms or to work with “alternative legal service providers,” diversity among their outside attorneys, and the elusive and not clearly defined “alternative fee arrangement.”
These demands continue and are driven by the in-house attorneys' internal pressure to meet budgets and to demonstrate to their internal clients the “value” that they and the external attorneys together provide to the business, especially in these challenging times. What might the “end game” look like for the relationship between in-house and outside attorneys? How does the corporate attorney, whether in-house or external, define the value they provide an organization, and how can the fee reflect that value within applicable ethical constraints?
Join us for the return of this popular class that discusses these issues and defines how both the in-house and external attorney can conceptualize the value each brings to the organizational client within the confines of the rules of professional conduct; how they can work together, particularly given the tension between the external counsel’s professional obligations to the client and the in-house attorney’s mandate to limit or control legal costs; and the ethical considerations when developing alternative fee structures.
Faculty:
Margaret M. Cassidy, Cassidy Law PLLC
Saul J. Singer, D.C. Bar Senior Legal Ethics Counsel
Brian Zuercher, Blue Line Aviation