Even if your company has infinite resources to pay for outside IP counsel, isn’t your company’s IP business strategy too important to select outside IP counsel on the basis of where he went to college, where her child goes to school or whether he likes to fly fish? In a world of perfect information, you would be able to go beyond personal contacts to select your outside IP counsel by asking those in the community with the most similar needs to yours, and ask them to recommend lawyers with whom they had success. This would entail asking your direct competitors with what lawyers they have found success. Of course, your competitors are unlikely to share who they think is the best IP lawyer(s) with your company. But, even if your competitors would be inclined to give you this information, the rules of legal ethics would likely prevent their recommended counsel from representing your company if the lawyer has already represented the other company.
So, we are back to the drawing board—how does your company select IP counsel that is cost effective and has the right IP and business skills to allow you to flawlessly execute your business strategy? There appears to be an emerging and innovative option. In the legal recruiting world, there is a growing business model of placing of senior lawyers in less-than-fulltime engagements. In this model, (described here: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/editorial/news/singleEdit.asp?search_Keywords=contract+lawyers&individual_SQL=4%2F21%2F2008%4022801&userSel=AMYEARAll), your company is able to engage a highly skilled and seasoned IP counsel to work with you, without your company incurring the salary and headcount costs of a full-time senior lawyer. (Note that it is not correct to call this lawyer a “part-time” lawyer, because, although he may be a “part-time” worker for you, he may be working for several other companies such that he is “full-time” in total hours worked.) The benefits to your company should be obvious here: you are obtaining very experienced in-house IP business counsel at a cost that is a fraction of what you would pay if you hired this person in-house—if you even could find the right person.