The art of diplomacy and in-house counsel

By Michael Carey ( July 10, 2018, 10:30 AM EDT) -- While practice in a law firm has its own well documented challenges, in-house counsel face different ones. For example, law firm counsel must develop and maintain client relationships, while in-house counsel have only one client: the company. However, within the company, there are numerous people with which the legal department must develop and maintain relations. In both cases, these individuals represent the corporate client: a VP may represent the company as a new client for a law firm, while that same VP is someone who in-house counsel should have a relationship with to represent the legal department. You might call it diplomacy....