Recently in Outside Counsel Category

Ever wonder what it cost to take a company public? Well, if it's of the same size and notoriety as Facebook, roughly $2.6 million.

Fenwick & West's Silicon Valley office was tapped to head Facebook's initial public offering back in February, and according to new regulatory figures, the social network expects to pay the firm approximately $2.6 million.

Partners Gordon Davidson and Jeffrey Vetter and associate James Evans must be very happy.

As in-house counsel, you may be called upon to participate in M&A deals from time to time, depending on the size of your company and your role at the company. Your company might engage outside counsel from a large law firm as well as the help of investment bankers to close the deal. Nevertheless, you want to know the basics of M&A.

Assume that you are counsel for a small company and a buyer has expressed interest. What's next? Here are some quick things to know about the M&A process.

The economy had a dramatic effect on law firms. Shrinking wallets led many in-house legal departments to look for alternatives to hiring large law firms. On-demand legal counsel is becoming increasingly common.

There are several variations to the on-demand legal counsel model. While a Google search will yield plenty of temp agencies for in-house work, there are companies out there devoted to providing their own attorneys to work onsite.

Fewer in-house counsel are outsourcing legal work -- a change that reflects a power shift between in-house and outside counsel, a new survey suggests.

Only 20% of in-house legal departments turned to an outside law firm to handle tax issues in 2011, according to the Association of Corporate Counsel's Census Report. That's down from 30% in 2006.

The ACC's report, released March 28, found two other practice areas where retaining outside counsel is also on the decline. And it detailed a few more statistics that seem to indicate in-house counsel are becoming increasingly important.

The in-house job market may be growing, as indicated by some recent high-profile hires.

Bloomberg recently snagged five partners from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Along with the new partners, about 15 associates may follow their bosses and cross over to Bloomberg. The exact number of attorneys hired is still unconfirmed.

How do you manage outside counsel? In particular, how do you manage billing and behavior?

In response to rising legal costs, corporate counsels have sought ways to manage outside expenses. Some have turned to the flat fee, while others have refused to pay for first-year associate work.

Pfizer has taken a somewhat different approach--one that it believes has produced better legal outcomes and cost-savings.

Is your company okay with paying for an outside counsel firm's first-year associate training?

For many years, it seems that the answer was "yes." It almost seemed inevitable that projects would be staffed with young attorneys.

But now there's a growing trend amongst general counsels: refusing to pay for first or second-year associates. After all, these attorneys are young. They don't have legal experience. How many companies are doing so?

As streamlined as your in-house counsel staff is, requesting help from outside counsel is often necessary for certain projects. How do you keep a good working relationship with your outside counsel, and what can you do to improve your outside counsel relationships?

Of course, making sure that you have hired the right kind of outside counsel for your company is the first step in the process.

And, if you've worked with the same group of outside counsel before, maybe your established relationship will help your deals go together more smoothly. But, what other tips can you use to improve your outside counsel relationships?

It's not uncommon for corporations to seek new outside counsel for each investigation or lawsuit, but doing so requires an in-house legal department that is adept at selecting outside counsel that not only meets its needs, but doesn't cost it an arm and a leg.

This isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, with dozens of law firms each claiming to be right for the job.

So how should you select outside counsel? And how do you streamline the process?

There's no correct answer to these questions, but here are a few tips.

A new battle has been waged in the all-out patent war between Samsung and Apple, and this time Samsung has requested that the Northern District of California disqualify Apple's lawyers on the grounds that they are a former client.

Apparently, five attorneys from Bridges & Mavrakakis, one of the many firms participating as Apple's outside counsel, represented Samsung while previously working for Kirkland & Ellis, giving rise to a potential conflict of interest.