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Should You Solve Your Legal
Problems Yourself?
The Evolving Business of Law
FEATURES
Question: Who is best situated to provide legal services to corporate clients?
a) Outside law firms
b) In-house legal departments
c) Alternative service providers
d) Watson
Answer: e) It depends.
ALISON GROUNDS
Alison Grounds is a litigation partner
with Troutman Sanders LLP and
also serves as the Managing Director
of Troutman Sanders eMerge — a
wholly owned subsidiary focused
on providing legal and technical
solutions to provide matter-specific
solutions for the management of
electronically stored information
(ESI) in legal matters. An experienced
litigator, Alison combines her
litigation and e-discovery experience
to work with clients to develop
proactive, matter-specific, efficient
and defensible legal strategies for
discovery. Contact her at alison.
grounds@troutmansanders.com.
It depends on many things, including the specific
legal issue, client, industry, timing, business need, risk
tolerance and objective; and the answer will change
over time as available options and client needs evolve.
Any of the above legal service provider options or a
combination of them could be the appropriate solution
depending on the situation.
In my experience, the decision of when to take
legal work in-house defies trends. Many clients are
electing to invest in their own teams and handle
maers themselves, but just as many find their legal
needs are changing or seek lower overhead and have
begun relying on outside legal services as needed.
When To DIY
Let's focus on the question of when you should bring
legal services in-house. Companies would rather invest
in new products, expand their business or pay higher
earnings to shareholders than pay for legal services, but
these services are essential in making those business
objectives possible. The challenge is making sure legal
services help clients meet their desired goals, and this
requires evaluating the current options rather than
defaulting to a status quo that might not be in the best
interest of the client.
Companies that invest in internal legal services
usually determine that recurring and repeatable
by Alison A. Grounds
