Patent Law

It's Not "Just About Money" for Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Department of 2008

By Les Weinstein, Michael Young, John Leo Wagner, Eric van Ginkel, and Victoria Pynchon

Qwest Communications is Corporate Counsel's Best Legal Department of 2008.  And it's not because Qwest is the fiercest fighter in the litigation jungle.  It's partially because Qwest used its in-house negotiation talent to settle a $40 billion lawsuit for $400 million.  

As the cover story Vision Qwest recounts, Qwest's General Counsel, Richard Baer, said his department, not outside counsel, would "take primary responsibility for handling the difficult, often tense, negotiations with the investors" after CEO Joseph Naccio "resigned  amid rumors of fraud and insider trading."

"It was very important that plaintiffs lawyers understood that the company is made up of people, good people," Baer says.  "We tried to humanize the company the best we could."

One of the ways Baer accomplished not only the settlement of life-threatening litigation but the revival of a company on the rocks was to bring far more work in-house and to remain closely involved in those cases being handled by outside counsel.  Last year, for instance, Qwest,

resolved 61 percent of litigation matters and 76 percent of employment matters without using outside counsel.

When Qwest lawyers do hire outside attorneys, they remain closely involved in the cases, says Brian Roche, a partner at Reed Smith, which handled recent trademark litigation for the company. "When you combine their deep knowledge of the company with the trial skills of an outside firm, you get the absolute best for your client," Roche says. "You'd think it would be more common. But it isn't."

This is a must-read article for anyone who wants to be next's year's best legal department or who wants to know how to work best with it as outside counsel.

Full post as published by IP ADR Blog on May 20, 2008 (boomark / email).