OF COUNSEL: WHO IS THE LEGAL COUNSEL, WHAT ARE HIS SKILLS AND WHAT IS HIS ROLE IN LAWFIRMS
Diritto 24 – 7.01.2013
A now established figure in the Italian law firm market is the role of 'Of Counsel'.
This appointment is attributed to professionals who tend not be associated with the lawfirm but who lend their assistance by providing on-the-spot advice in certain areas of the law. A very flexible role in all its aspects, each study establishes a special and subjective relationship with its 'Of Counsel'.
If we consider the traditional, small-to-medium lawfirm, this professional figure is probably not presented as such. Instead, there is a dense network of more or less ongoing collaboration with self-employed professionals whose involvement entails providing assistance on those matters in which the lawfirm does not have specific expertise.
On the contrary, in large lawfirms, the 'Of Counsel' position is more structured. These professionals are often fairly senior with in-depth expertise of certain areas of the law and the market. The added value they bring to the firm is proven expertise that the firm, on the one hand, needs to already have internally to present itself on the market in a certain way and, on the other hand, so as not to avoid having to outsource all the mandates to practices that do not require the contribution of structured teams.
Professionals can obtain a number of advantages from this type of collaboration: firstly, they are often able to maintain their business and continue issuing invoices, while receiving a percentage of the fees charged by the lawfirm for work carried out on behalf of the firm. One aspect that differentiates the ‘Of Counsel’ position from that of Associate is the autonomy and the flexibility that allow the professional to be self-sufficient without particular constraint.
The market profile is that of a professional with at least 15-20 years’ experience behind him. Often, the professional has 360° familiarity with the study area and has provided assistance to both boutique lawfirms of great renown and to structured lawfirms. With regard to the areas of practice, those holding the position of ‘Of Counsel’ tend to complete the specialisation that is missing within the firm. Employment, administrative, tax and energy law are therefore of more likely assistance to the corporate boutique. Within the broad framework of international lawfirms, each practice is structured in departments. The ‘Of Counsel’ and is an expert in both the previously mentioned areas and in M&A, Banking & Finance and Insolvency, thus bringing added value from a technical point of view (it is not uncommon for the profile to correspond to a Lawyer and Ordinary University Professor with expertise in a given market sector: utilities, financial services, oil & gas, etc., … ).
Regardless of the type of relationship that develops between the professional and the ‘Of Counsel’, what underlies this type of figure are the synergies that can mutually emerge from the collaboration for both the lawfirm and the professional, which translates as added value for the customer.