Optimize Value from Outside Counsel's Junior Personnel

Invite a talented associate from one of your outside law firms to work out of your office for a month.  Almost invariably, outside counsel will embrace seconding a junior associate for a short time.  To outside counsel, this initiative feels like the solidification of your relationship and they’ll likely assign the associate at no incremental cost to you.   For your company, the costs are fairly small – a cubicle, internet connection, guest bathroom key and a little time interacting.  The benefits, however, can be enormous.   After a month, you’ll have a junior outside attorney with a stronger grasp of your company’s strategic goals, challenges, opportunities and culture and a cost effective point of contact for routine, day-to-day matters.  After working closely with your team for a month, the junior associate will develop interpersonal relationships, support your strategic goals and be disinclined to bill indiscriminately because she or he is now billing people, not an impersonal corporate entity.  As your department grows, you’ll have the inside track on recruitment – but don’t tell outside counsel.