To manage the knowledge of outside law firms for the good of the law department

In a piece that describes the convergence program of Schering-Plough, Met. Corp. Counsel, Vol. 14, May 2006 at 45, the company’s general counsel (Tom Sabatino) explains his expectation of work product sharing. Sabatino looks to his “Core Team,” which will “get somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of all Schering-Plough’s US legal work – excluding patent prosecution work (but including patent litigation.”),” to “share work product on an ongoing basis.”

In a large department, a person could be assigned full time to locating, redacting, and distributing work product among convergence firms. That would be time well spent, would not need to be a lawyer, and would save money.