8 décembre 2022
What Is a Secondment Law Firm
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The Committee then considered another practical issue raised by many delegations. Can the firm continue to supervise the work of the seconded lawyer for matters relating to the hosting organisation? In other words, if the lawyer was part of a litigation team defending the receiving organisation prior to the secondment, could the firm continue to monitor that lawyer`s work on the same issue during the secondment? The Committee concluded that there was no reason to assign conflicts in these circumstances for two reasons. First, the law firm and the host organisation had previously worked together on this issue, and nothing about the fact that the firm remained involved in the lawyer`s work on the same issue during the secondment raised any new or different conflicts. Moreover, there is hardly any functional difference between the activity of the lawyer seconded as in-house legal adviser in charge of the case and the supervision of the work of the Registry and the supervision of the work of the lawyer seconded by the Registry in the same case. Reaching a different conclusion, the committee wrote, « would place form above substance and create an unjustified gap between the host organization, on the one hand, and the seconded lawyer and law firm, on the other, thereby undermining the host organization`s right to obtain advice of its choice. » [NYC Bar 2007-2, citing Levine v. Levine, 56 N.Y.2d 42 (1982).] Secondments, where lawyers are temporarily assigned to a client`s legal department or one of the firm`s international offices, are enriching experiences that allow lawyers to better advise clients and companies to differentiate their service offerings. Assuming that neither the host organisation nor the « client Z » are willing to provide the necessary information and/or waive the conflict, the law firm (and the seconded lawyer) would be excluded from representation. One could easily imagine how many potential and actual conflicts arise if the host organization were a large accounting firm or investment bank involved in countless transactions and financial matters of clients. The resulting inability of the company to commit (or continue) would be disastrous for its bottom line. Secondments expand the lawyer`s presence in the firm in two ways.
First, secondments allow the lawyer to become familiar with the firm, its culture and its overall strategies. By seconding companies, the lawyer acquires a deep awareness of the role that the respective client plays in the firm`s clientele and, through an international assignment, the lawyer learns about the broader structure of the firm, so that he will later be able to connect business opportunities with the right person in the firm`s global network. Second, secondments allow the law firm to get to know the lawyer better. For lawyers with a partnership in mind, it is beneficial to connect with a diverse group of partners, whether that group includes international partners or partners on the client team. Large law firms often choose to send a lawyer to one of their international offices to consolidate their network around the world. As a seconded lawyer in an international office, you act as an ambassador for your workplace by helping with local legal issues while upholding the universal corporate values and cultures that unite your firm. In return, it is expected that you will come back with the acquired skills that you can apply in your own workplace. In an economic environment characterized by cost reductions for clients and an increased willingness of clients to turn to multiple law firms and lawyers for their legal needs, law firm managing partners may wonder how to compete for new contracts. While there is no simple answer to their dilemma, one approach that is increasingly accepted and used by U.S. law firms, and especially law firms with a New York practice, is detachment. An international mission naturally serves as a bridge between two offices of the law firm. If the firm maintains an international secondment program under which a new lawyer is transferred to a specific international office each year, the distance between the firm`s offices will be shortened over time.
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