Bi-lateral secondments between departments and firms

A presentation by a lawyer from TD Bank Financial Group makes the point that secondments should be two way – from the law firm to the law department as well as the other way around (See my posts of Sept. 21, 2005 about hiring secondees and Oct. 26, 2005 about the idea of a reverse secondment of paralegals.).

No situation has come to my attention where a law department assigned one of its lawyers to spend weeks or months at a law firm, perhaps to learn a new area of law, perhaps to tighten the bonds between the company and its counsel, or even to work closely on a massive project, but such an arrangement is plausible. Nothing says that the in-house gone out-house lawyer can’t continue to work on his or her previous responsibilities just because that lawyer’s office has moved.