The press has had something of field day reporting on the woes of private-practice lawyers over the past year or so. From layoffs to salary freezes, law firm collapses to more ridiculous measures such as the strict enforcement of stationery quotas, it seems many firms have felt the pinch of cost-cutting measures. But how are the region’s in-house lawyers faring in the economic crisis? Are they facing the same pressures, and in what areas are these most apparent?
The results of the ALB In-house survey confirm that in-house lawyers, like their private-practice counterparts, are under the pump; facing cost-cutting measures left, right and centre. But when in-house teams want to cut costs they do not necessarily look to the same areas as law firms do. Rather, they look to their single largest liability: the amount of money they spend on outside counsel. And while this is by no means a new phenomenon, it is a concern which has taken on new meaning in the second worst financial crisis in living memory.
Pressure
While in-house lawyers may not have to deal with the prospect of salary freezes, equity contributions or the possibility of a law firm collapse, life in-house, it seems, has never been tougher. Shrinking legal teams, dwindling internal and external budgets, and the ever-intrusive hand of company management are just a few of the hurdles that most in-house lawyers across the region have to negotiate on a daily basis. One should not mistake these for new occurrences – they have been happening, in one form or another, for much of the past 20 years. However, they are now being given greater attention.
“An economic downturn doesn’t equate to a downturn in one’s legal obligations. We are much busier now than we have been over the last 12 months… handling twice as many matters than we were in the last quarter of 2007”Gavin Ingram
The extent to which these issues have become the focal point for many in-house departments may be gauged by tracking the change in the amount of work in-house lawyers are handling themselves, the complexity of this work and the speed with which they are expected to complete it, says Gavin Ingram, corporate counsel for Asia with BlueScope Steel. “An economic downturn doesn’t equate to a downturn in one’s legal obligations. We are much busier now than we have been over the last 12 months and handling maybe twice as many matters than we were in the last quarter of 2007. Matters come across my desk with a regularity I have not seen for a long time,” he says.