The bedrock of what every law department does

Having never defined “law department,” a term that astute readers may have noted makes the occasional cameo appearance on this blog, I thought about what attributes a corporate function absolutely needs to have to qualify as a law department. Three of them, I propose.

Fundamental to all law departments are a trio of activities. Law departments provide legal advice to enable business and reduce legal risks. To do so, they muster talent and provide infrastructure for them such as offices, equipment, and hardware. And, they all hire outside counsel or vendors for some tasks. A law department carries out lots of “processes,” but a process is more micro, a recognizable unit of related activities in support of one of those constitutive activities.

These fundamentals, broad in scope, varied in expression, but ubiquitous in functions thought of as law departments, define the minimum requisite attributes.