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What law firms can offer law departments beyond substantive legal expertise and manpower

Law departments have not lacked for ingenuity when asking law firms to provide services beyond legal advice (See my posts of June 28, 2006 on added-value services – IT support, access to work product, CLE, secondees, extranets, recruitment, and contract tracking; July 21, 2005 with a higher-level listing; and Feb. 25, 2007 about law firm training of in-house counsel.).

Here are some more offerings by firms that departments might explore.

1. Analyze and report internal data (See my post of Nov. 5, 2007 about Cisco and Fenwick & West.).

2. Participate in end-to-end process reviews (See my posts of Oct. 12, 2006 on law firms as consultants; and Dec. 22, 2006 #2.)

3. Provide an office so a law department does not have to rent space for a remote lawyer. I know of an energy company that houses one of its lawyers for free in the offices of a law firm.

4. Recruit and train jointly (See my post of Sept.18, 2006 on Citigroup.).

5. Develop software (See my posts of June 5, 2007 on rules-based guidance; and June 18, 2007 on Proskauer’s initiative.).

6. Create and distribute online TV feeds for CLE training (See my post of May 28, 2007.).

7. Involve in-house lawyers in a training institute, such as the Bernard G. Segal Institute for Appellate Advocacy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the US law firm, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis.