Practice groups, as distinct from business unit groups and specialists groups (Intuit)

The 25-lawyer legal and compliance department of Intuit transformed when the new general counsel, Laura Fennel, shifted its lawyers from supporting individual product lines to working in one of four practice groups. The practice groups cover commercial, global risk mitigation, intellectual property, and corporate and M&A, with each group led by a practice head. According to an article, posted on Law.com In-House Counsel from the Recorder, April 26, 2006 (Petra Pasternak), “the practice heads are now organized with a broad view of all of Intuit’s businesses.”

Compare these practice groups to groups of lawyers supporting a business line (See my posts of Dec. 21, 2005 on Ascential’s organization; July 31, 2005 on specialist lawyers within business unit groups; Oct. 8, 2005 on litigation and business unit lawyers; and March 22, 2006 on silos.) and to groups of lawyers with a functional specialty, such as litigation, bankruptcy, environmental or employment (See my post of July 30, 2005 on dual reporting of specialists.). The Intuit practice groups span all of Intuit’s business lines and probably integrate more than one legal specialty (See my post of Feb. 15, 2006 on yet another structural orientation: regions.).