RunningLean

Law departments are making it work in today’s economy.

t first, a recession is a crisis, an acute challenge that must be met head on.

But after a year or two, it just becomes a way of life. Everyone’s affected. No

one is spared the financial pressure and budgetary constraints. The ques-

tion then becomes how you manage over the long term, adjusting goals

and expectations to maximize efficiency and reduce cost without

surrendering quality of service.

These days all law departments are running lean, trying to find their

own solutions to the universal problem of doing more with less. But

no two companies are alike—the recession has hit industries in various ways, to

varying degrees. So this month, InsideCounsel reaches out to companies across

the spectrum—aerospace, telecom, retail, health care—to see just how they are

responding to the limitations and opportunities of the recession.

Their experiences show that while a tight economy is no walk in the park,

it’s not tragic either. Difficult as a recession can be, it’s part of a cycle; it can be

a balancing force. In some ways it actually makes an in-house counsel’s job

easier, more interesting and more rewarding.

A

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Running Lean

Best Buy • Insourcing

One really good attorney

essentially takes the place of three outside counsel.

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Boeing • The Squeeze

Running Lean

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RehabCare • Smooth System

Running Lean

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Running Lean

eBay • Procurement Pro

Qwest • Three Prongs

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