Relationships between lawyers a two-way street’
Jerry Bell, a health care attorney with Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, warns that the relationship between in-house and outside counsel is a two-way street. Here is a list of his pet peeves that he says in-house counsel should bear in mind.
- Don’t hold sham "beauty contests." "I have been in some beauty contests’ where I really felt like the outcome was a predestined result," Bell asserts. "I wondered whether the whole thing was generated so the prospective client could get a lot of free ideas about how to structure a transaction or deal with a particular issue."
- Don’t unreasonably refuse to waive conflicts. If there is no similarity between lawsuits and contracts, Bell says providers should be willing to waive potential conflicts.
- Don’t second guess bills needlessly. Bell says providers should be careful not to question very minor charges unnecessarily. "When the bill is way out of line, I think that is legitimate," he says. "But just to nit-pick a bill is unreasonable."
- Don’t fail to collaborate. Bell says in-house counsel sometimes fail to offer adequate background material to outside counsel. For example, a firm may be asked to prepare a medical director agreement for a facility without knowing the overall business or strategic plan. "How can we prepare even a simple medical director agreement if we don’t understand the overall objectives of the client?" he asserts.
- Don’t play firms off against each other. Bell says outside firms are typically not the only firm engaged by a provider. "That’s fine," he asserts. "It is when we start getting played off against each other that I don’t like it."
s Don’t think loyalty is a one-way street. According to Bell, in-house counsel who take a hard-line position about what a conflict is but an expansive view about the firms they might use should avoid cutting a loyal law firm loose at the drop of a hat.
- Don’t make outside counsel the bad guy. If there are 10 transactions and nine of them are OK, don’t make outside counsel deliver the news to the CEO about the one that won’t work, Bell advises.
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