In-House Counsel

How they speak about some points of law department management in Britain

By Rees Morrison

My funny American accent doesn?t come through on this blog, but previously I have called out terms that are distinctively British (See my post of Feb. 9, 2006: British terms and references cited; Nov. 30, 2007 #2: charge-out rates; and Jan. 4, 2008: more than 20 trans-Atlantic terms.). A recent book has tossed up a slew more of them.

Ann Page and Richard Trapp, Managing External Legal Resources (ICSA 2007) is written by two British solicitors, the latter being general counsel of Carillion PLC, and they scatter British phrases and terms throughout. ?Locum staff? (page 18, instead of temps), ?white-labelling? (9, instead of OEM or ?our product but the retailer's label?), ?bog-standard? (7, instead of commodity, regular), protocols (43, instead of guidelines, codes), ?away day? (56, instead of offsite or retreat) and ?contact partner? (59, instead of relationship partner). I am indebted to Amanda Nelson of Diageo for her translation services.

Full post as published by Law Department Management on March 06, 2009 (boomark / email).