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The Changing Role of the General Counsel

By Bryan Hughes
June 18, 2010

There is no doubt that the global recession has had a lasting impact on the legal sector across the world. Although it was quite clear from the outset that law firms would be far from immune from the economic crisis, the long-term impact has been more pronounced than anyone anticipated. The headlines may be capturing cost-cutting exercises and reduced headcount for many in the sector, but one of the major changes of the recession is how the boundaries of the client-lawyer relationship has been redrawn ' the power now firmly lies with the client as the status of general counsel within their own organization continues to grow.

The growing status of the in-house lawyer was a key trend that emerged from our latest report ' “Law Firm of the 21st Century: The Clients' Revolution” ' that canvassed the opinions of both general counsel and law firm partners. In fact, it was seen as the factor that is set to have the most transformative effect on the global legal profession by 35% of all respondents, just behind the top factor, globalization.

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