Ad Arguendo: In-House Counsel Withholding, and to Withhold, More Work from their Law Firms

My Professional Coaching Testimonials

Pete is an amazing coach. He zeroes in on the real, central issues quickly--then let's the client work her own way through. I highly recommend him. [FS]
.
Peter is an amazing listener, but he is definitely opinionated once he feels he has the facts. What a breath of fresh air! Worth every dime. [GB]
.
Pete really helped me. I knew I had all the tools, but I had no idea how to use them. Now I'm blogging, and even getting published. His greatest strength is knowing how limitless everyone's potential really is. [EC]
·
I can't say enough about working with Pete. It has been a watershed moment in my career. I highly recommend him. [JRT]
·
I continue working with Pete because he is always, always there with a new message--and always apropos. [JM]
·
There's the work and then there's the pitch. Pete has really opened my eyes. I recommend him. [ST]
·
This was my first experience with a professional coach. Pete has been there, understands the challenges, is able to see through the smoke screens that me as the typcail lawyer throw out there. Be ready to hear some honest feedback! [LE]
·
I certainly attribute my new position to Pete. His confidence in me helped me begin to have confidence in myself! [DT]
·
Pete's coaching practice is the best-kept secret in the country. I keep working with him now even though my practice has taken me to London, Dubai and Shanghai. Essential. [PZ]
·
Give Pete a call. But be ready. He squeezes two hours into every hour session. [JEG]
·
Contact me if you have an interest in learning more about contract legal professionals.

bio

mission statement: (a) A professional legal recruiter serving attorneys across the globe in the endeavor to find positions and new platforms. Place premier attorneys in all major European and Asian markets and, in the US, in all California markets. Absolute professionalism, efficiency, thorough market knowledge, and strong working relationships with all premier law firms is not the apex of the ideal recruiting practice, but rather the ground floor of the same, upon which all quality candidates must insist.

(b) Keen insight into the practice of law as a unique career path, mastery and passion for professional development for attorneys, profound understanding of the challenges facing legal professionals, and a powerful sense of advocacy for candidates. This an advocacy expressed in not only in a powerful kinetic and voice presence, but also as a writer.

(c) The primary skill set brought to bear on a legal search is the ability and savvy to understand, package, and express a candidate's skills, temperament, and professional aspirations.

background: Former litigator and trial lawyer with Nixon Peabody, formerly Lillick & Charles, a 100-year-old San Francisco firm. As a litigator, exhibited a high aptitude for oral advocacy. Successfully defended business entities large and small in both high-stakes civil litigation and government compliance. Second to courtroom advocacy, a passion for showing clients how to understand the legal system, what to expect, and how best to succeed.

practice: Educate, advise, direct. Ensure candidates are placed, but more importantly, placed with a firm with the expertise, clientele, and culture that will bring out their best efforts. Happiness and fulfillment in the law are attainable if candidates are able to apply, with some guidance, strategic thinking and self-knowledge.

personal: In addition to considerable legal experience and insight into the world's premier legal markets, a wealth of life experience. Principal in two successful prior business ventures, served as an Arabic linguist and strategic analyst, traveled extensively in Central and South America (picking up very passable Spanish and an uncannily native accent along the way), and now helps raise three children with his wife, Sheryl. Pete is proud of his bilingual household; all his adopted children were born in Guatemala.

conclusion: Most important from a candidate's perspective, Pete consistent application of relentless drive, analytical abilities, and considerable human insight to help each candidate discover and hone his or her personal and career goals and to finding each candidate the best possible position. This approach to a legal search is sufficiently unique to merit reading the following further explanation.

education: Juris Doctor, University of San Francisco. Bachelor of Science, International Business Administration, San José State University. Diplomas with Honors, Modern Standard Arabic and Syrian Dialect, the Defense Language Institute.

Monday

In-House Counsel Withholding, and to Withhold, More Work from their Law Firms

If you've been around as long as I have, you've seen this headline and the cycle it refers to, at least a half-dozen times. Click here for a concise summary from the AmLaw Daily. Yet, this time around, the move toward keeping more work in-house will be (more or less) permanent. That's because the current trend is not the usual economic see-saw that corporate management usually indulges in. Rather, it's a function of the in-house bar increasing its relative strenght within corporate management, as well as its collective sophistication as a distinct legal perspective.

So, the real questions are: a) what work is staying in-house; and b) what can firms do about it to maximize profits.

First, the kind of work that is staying in-house is not high-level analysis, but rather more high-volume (repeatable) work. Notably, they are keeping inside the lower-level document review work as it pertains to litigation, due diligence and compliance. That work can easily be monitored in-house. Frankly, folks like me (director of a contract attorney agency) are increasing convincing in-house counsel that several types of work can be done far more economically (and frankly BETTER) by a contract legal force, than by their white-shoe law firms.

Second, law firms can capture some of that work by utilizing contract agencies themselves. That way they: 1) keep more control over more of the work; 2) still get to save their clients money without sacrificing their partners' A-rates; and 3) get to minimize their own overhead and expand their own reach by being able to take on larger projects than every before--without committing to great numbers of associates.

All you need now is a reputable, professional agency that actually screens its folks and takes an aggressive role in making projects actually work smoothly.