Three categories of lawyers at Royal Dutch Shell

The restructured legal department at Royal Dutch Shell has divided its lawyers into “corporate counsel,” “business counsel,” and “regional counsel.” All of these counsel report to the General Counsel, Beat Hess, according to Legal Week, Vol. 7, Nov. 10, 2005 at 62 (See my post of Dec. 21, 2005 about the dual responsibilities of Ascential’s lawyers.).

What “regional counsel” do that differs from what their corporate and business counterparts do, I can’t imagine, except serve as a coordinating layer. The department has hundreds of lawyers, and perhaps needs that extra dollop of management for control and coordination.