By setting up a panel and managing the external law firms the company currently instructs. The trained legal professional in-house lawyer will be able to ensure the legal advice the company purchases is cost effective and by providing a great deal of the initial advice yourself, you will be able to reduce the company's spend on external lawyers.
Working alongside the business people, an in-house lawyer can utilise the collective experience within the company to implement standard precedents, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
You are likely to also resume responsibility for all regulatory issues. A good in-house lawyer will always have one eye on potential future legal issues and problems and by planning ahead will be able to ensure such issues either do not arise or, if they do arise, that they are managed appropriately. External counsel, by definition, are one step removed from the business and cannot function in this way.
By monitoring employment, pensions, litigious, property and company secretarial issues. These are typically areas of work which can be bought immediately in-house at a much lower cost.
An in-house lawyer can add value in drafting and negotiating commercial agreements as well as on corporate transactions. As an employee, you will have intimate knowledge of the business. This familiarity will produce dividends in the time saved explaining the issues facing the business to external lawyers, and results in contracts which fit the needs of the company much more closely.
Having one point of contact for legal issues rationalises the company's approach to legal matters, saving time and money.
