why do in house depts like to run lean legal teams despite the volume of work

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Because it’s a cost center

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I also make >400k and work 20-30ish hrs. We run lean. I am just more efficient than my peers and not gunning

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So I’m in house L&E and I’m convinced we are generally the busiest group in most legal departments; at every company I’ve worked at, even when I was a generalist, it was always the employment related stuff that had me working the most.
I’m closer to 350k tc and generally work over 40 hours a week- probably 45 on average.
That said I don’t work because I have to hit certain metrics, I do it to get things done and put out fires. It’s ok to have a slow week or month; you relish it and sign Off at 12 on Fridays

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yeah this is a unicorn situation, most of my peers working in house work longer than 45 hours, at least 50ish hours but definitely not pure 9 to 5

It is hard to prove to senior management using metrics that more legal spend means more profit. You’re right that risk mitigation is super important, but how do you figure out $ of legal spend vs law suits and claims that aren’t happening. It makes a good GC super important who can articulate to senior management what their team is doing.

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On deals where there is tax risk it’s extremely difficult for the reasons that are the same for all of legal. Most tax groups are viewed as cost centers the same as most legal functions.

Luckily I work on other items that have direct cash and p&l impact so it’s a lot easier to show that value in dollars.

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