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This month’s Corporate Counsel features the magazine’s annual review of top legal departments.  The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. earned top honors this year for its impressive accomplishments on the precipice of a financial industry meltdown and for its highly-developed internal efforts to promote success within the legal department.  

Building a great team, of course, requires hiring great people, but Hartford Financial demonstrates how to push a legal department to truly excel.  And having a legal department that excels has never been more critical than it is now in times of tightening budgets and increased scrutiny on legal expenses.

Key lessons your legal department can learn:

• Hire not just talented staff, but talented staff with complementary strengths.  Each hire should strengthen the overall team and equip the department to be more agile in the face of changes to the business.
• Systematically implement mentoring and training programs.  These are long-term investments that will pay off in recruiting, retention, and productivity.
• Train lawyers within the legal department to hire and manage the relationship with outside counsel.  Legal departments of all sizes need their lawyers to take a consistent, strategic approach to working with outside lawyers, particularly in times of tight budgets.  Even though most in-house counsel previously worked as outside counsel, many would benefit from training to get the most from outside lawyers.   
• Take a hands-on approach to legal work.  Keeping in-house counsel actively involved in the matters they manage encourages a better result.
• Encourage innovation.  Lawyers are not natural innovators, and change often comes slowly.  However, a culture that encourages experimenting with new methods, new approaches, and new perspectives will yield more successes than failures.

You can learn more about Hartford Financial’s successes here:  http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202430800136.

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As companies continue to look for ways to trim costs, video and telephone conferences are quickly becoming an initial first step for interviewing non-local candidates. Here are several tips on how to prepare for your video interview:        

• Dress as you would for a face-to-face interview -  from head to toe. Even though the camera may catch you from waist-up at your desk, don’t take the chance being viewed in shorts.
• Try to maintain eye contact with remote viewers and avoid frequently looking away, which could create an impression that you’re distracted.
• DON’T CHECK YOUR BLACKBERRY.
• Speak clearly and pay close attention to the interviewer’s conversation with you, even if the interview is being simultaneously broadcast to multiple offices.
• When emphasizing something important, lean in slightly toward the camera.
• If you’re a small person in a large chair, sit on the edge of your seat to maintain a strong visual presence.

To prepare for a telephone interview:

• Minimize distracting background noise prior to the call’s start.  Barking dogs, television noise and flushing toilets can blow it.  
• If the call is unexpected, ask to reschedule for a time when you’ll have had a chance to prepare yourself and your environment.
• If the interview is scheduled, keep your résumé and notes close for reference.
• Like a video interview, avoid checking your blackberry or e-mail, and pay close attention to the conversation. Phone interviewers judge candidates by what they say and how they say it.  Lulls in conversation can indicate a lack of focus or knowledge on a subject.

For both telephone and video conference interviews, it helps to practice. You can practice in the mirror or even by recording yourself. Additionally, it’s nice to send a follow-up thank you that reiterates your top selling points. Be sure to proofread, though.

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As companies consider ways to control spending in 2009, many are choosing to reduce outside counsel costs by bringing more work in-house. Despite layoffs in virtually all areas of the economy, major corporations have found that boosting their in-house team can have long-term cost-cutting benefits.

According to a Chief Legal Officer study released late last year, 75 percent of respondents said they expected budget cuts in 2009, with most of the cuts directed at outside counsel spending. Some will find it necessary to increase law department headcount in order to manage the additional workload. 

For companies that choose, however, to refrain from hiring additional lawyers, the budget cuts will likely result in expanded responsibilities and higher expectations for efficiency by in-house lawyers. 

Here are some tips on how to work smarter:

• Maximize the use of paralegals
• Develop a strong working relationship with your HR team to minimize labor and employment issues through training and compliance
• Embrace and use technology – now is the time to become an expert on software solutions, electronic invoicing or matter management 
• Practice preventive law through training, dispute resolution procedures, contract administration and document retention policies

Budget cuts and efforts by law departments to do more with less this year may provide an opportunity for in-house counsel to diversify areas of expertise and broaden skills, which might come in handy someday.

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