This view was expressed by the Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Best Buy Enterprise Services Inc. in the May 2010 issue of Inside Counsel.  “Their ability to triage, to understand an issue as it’s coming in, can save me immense amounts of outside counsel fees and in-house resources.”  But why is this approach reserved only for in-house counsel — it is not.

Perhaps the distinction is not whether an attorney works in-house or outside, but whether the company has found the right attorney.  Companies must seek out counsel that understand what it is like to live with decisions in a business environment — not those who just make insulated and unpractical recommendations.  The difference between a really good attorney that can triage issues and solve problems and “outside counsel” is not the location of the attorney, but their skill, experience and approach.

The General Counsel Hotline provides a business-centric, proactive tool to allow clients the luxury of in-house counsel at a fraction of the cost.  See how this program can turn three of your outside counsel into one.

What do you think?

(Hat Tip: Michael Mason Norman, ED.D. — Thanks!)

Another of my favorite examples of relationship building shows that results can happen quite fast.  A client had an issue with some products being imported into the United States from China.  The issue centered around whether the seller of the products paid a certain license fee.  The licensor had a reputation for being very aggressive in these cases, usually requiring immediate destruction of the allegedly infringing goods.  Fearing a multi-million dollar loss and knowing that the products were in fact licensed, my client immediately traveled to the port.  While in the coffee shop, my client struck up a conversation with the person sitting next to him.  After chatting for a while, they both left and coincidentally walked to the same building.  My client happen to ask if this person knew the customs official he was looking for and my client’s new friend said absolutely.  Unknowingly, my client had just befriended one of the most senior customs officials at the port.  That short relationship building exercise in the coffee shop allowed my client to quickly work with the right people to clarify the error and get the products released.

Building relationships can happen in various environments and through different formats — in person, networking, online and in other ways.  Ethos Business Law client, LoopDesk, has developed a useful and innovative online business-to-business networking tool that allows companies to build relationships in a way that many other social media sites do not.  If you are interested, you can click here to learn more about LoopDesk and take advantage of an advertising special they are offering.

Whether you build relationships through personal networking, online networking, social media or through other ways, building relationships is a lifelong process that will build and evolve you brand.  Start building and maintaining relationships today and they will be very valuable in your future business dealings.

• Dell’s $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems in September
• Walt Disney’s $4 billion tie-up with Marvel in August
• Exxon Mobil’s $41 billion all-stock buy of XTO Energy in December
• AIG offloading its Asian life insurance business to the U.K.’s Prudential for $35.5 billion

While these deals certainly make headlines, I don’t think they do much for main street American business and more importantly, I don’t think you can declare that merger and acquisition activity is back based on these deals alone. The article argues that these deals signal change  and explains that companies are looking to invest the cash they accumulated through the significant cost-cutting measures in 2009.

However, what the article fails to address is the significant strain many companies still feel, those that did not have the luxury of accumulating significant cash reserves through cost-cutting.  On the contrary, for many businesses, cost-cutting was not a strategy employed to accumulate cash — it was a drastic measure taken to ensure survival.  As such, these businesses are not in a position to simply spend the cash reserves to restart the engine, they need their market to rebound.

Perhaps some of the rebound can come from the larger players who have these cash reserves through a “trickle down” process.  But most of this growth will drive from continued consumer confidence and growth.  So, yes, these large deals are important to signal a sea change, but the real recovery is going to require a much larger economic and environmental change over time.

Perhaps the best nugget of the article came in the last paragraph:  “In his latest letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett said, ‘Directors should hire a second advisor to make the case against the proposed acquisition, with its fee contingent on the deal not going through.’ Absent that drastic measure, his advice remains ‘Don’t ask the barber whether you need a haircut.’”

The basic business model is simple — outside general counsel services typically work with small to midsize businesses that have few or no in-house lawyers and act as an in-house lawyer without the cost or commitment of full-time employment. They can parachute into a company, even as a C-level executive, and stay for as long or as briefly as needed.  Outside general counsel are perfectly suited to triage and solve your day-to-day legal needs at a fraction of the cost of traditional legal solutions.  Here are just some of the benefits that outside general counsel provide when compared with traditional law firms:

• They are key business advisors, not just legal technicians
• They have significant in-house executive legal experience, and often times advanced business education
• They share a business-centric and practical approach, grounded in the company’s business objectives
• They can work in your office, along side your team
• They provide proactive legal risk management, helping avoid problems before they arise
• They communicate better with business constituents
• They provide another executive on your team, without the commitment of hiring a new employee
• They free you from worrying about the 6-minute bills
• They offer low overhead costs, meaning more affordable rates

An outside general counsel can handle your day-to-day legal needs in a manner that is more relevant to you than a traditional law firm and at a more compelling cost. In addition, they can work with law firms, and manage them, to get the most out of high-priced specialists when needed. Large companies rely on in-house counsel for these reasons. With an outside general counsel, you can too.

Some of the interesting attributes of Cash Balance Plans include:

• Are a type of defined benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

• May be well-suited for high income-earning professionals and owners of small, closely-held businesses.

• Feature deferral of more pre-tax income than 401K or profit sharing plans.

• Can often be layered on top of a 401K or profit sharing plan.

I recently saw a research article here that provided a great summary of Cash Balance Plans.  This was put together by Bernstein Global Wealth Management and was sent to me by Paul Borowski, one of their advisors (Paul.Borowski@bernstein.com).  Take a look and see if this might be right for you.

Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law conducted a groundbreaking study with C-suite executives regarding corporate use of social media, as well as on the need for internal policies and training. The firms were contacted last month for permission to share key findings at the global event in a session entitled “The Growing Influence of Social Networks,” which featured the CEOs of LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning and Twitter, among others.

“Corporations need to recognize that the social Web has the potential to become a new mode of production and the new “operating system” of a business,” the Forum reported. “But companies face a crisis of leadership. Too many companies are reticent about incorporating social media into either the organization’s internal process or its customer strategy, viewing social networks instead as a threat to employee productivity, or a source of transparency for which some organizations feel unready.”

Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law have participated in numerous speaking engagements since the original research was released a few months ago. A free copy of the research white paper is available at here.

I find one of the best way for a client to leverage value from its corporate counsel is through regular, proactive interaction.  Simply spending time discussing a client’s business and future goals can prove quite productive.  I often work as outside general counsel for clients on a retainer basis — not by hourly fees.  This encourages clients to spend time working with their attorney on proactive strategies and removes the “time” concern.  Moreover, this fosters a better relationship between the parties and allows the attorney to have a better institutional knowledge of the client.  If you are still paying for every minute of your corporate attorney’s time, consider implementing a different business model.

According to the New York Times, “the move suggests that the government is intent on bringing to bear on the Internet the same sorts of regulations that have governed other forms of media, like television or print.”  The FTC argues that they were “looking and seeing the significance of social media marketing in the 21st century and thought it was time to explain the principles of transparency and truth in advertising and apply them to social media marketing. Which isn’t to say that we saw a huge problem out there that was imperative to address.”

The question this raises in my mind is where this leads.  Does this begin an onslaught of regulation into the use of social media.  Does this invite further regulation as to what a person can include on his or her Facebook page.  How do you properly disclose potential issues in a 140 character Tweet?  While this regulation in isolation may not be extremely significant or onerous, it definitely signals a future of regulation in the social media world.

Let me know what you think.