MEMBERSHIP-A WINNING COST VS. VALUE PROPOSITION

BY: JOHN LINTON, PAST PRESIDENT

W-I-I-F-M AND OTHER ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE:

Completely unlike "Humbug!" and other utterances of dissent or disapproval, "WIIFM" (pronounced "wiff um") is an acronym for the value inquiry many of us pose to ourselves when we consider joining a new organization or renewing an existing membership, i.e., What's In It For Me? If you are a member of ACC and have taken the time to familiarize yourself with and have used the resources this organization provides, you no longer ask WIIFM. But I suspect that if the legal entities we represent could speak, they might question our annual ACC dues renewal expenditure with a WIIFM type of inquiry. Has one of your employer's surrogates, like its CFO, ever asked you how ACC membership is of value to the corporate client you represent? Perhaps you've heard a loaded question like: "We already pay dues annually to the American Bar Association for every lawyer in the legal department so why do they also need to belong to ACC?" There are really good answers to that question and it's essential that we all know them and can always respond without hesitation.

THE BEST ANSWER IS LINKED TO CLIENT EXPECTATIONS:

With no exceptions I'm aware of, corporations and other legal entities are expecting today's in-house legal departments to achieve more with fewer dollars and fewer lawyers that ever before. And there's an accompanying expectation that the work product will be of the highest reliability and quality and be delivered on or ahead of some dictated deadline. The only way I know of to meet such high (some would argue "unreasonable") expectations is for all lawyers in the legal department to function cooperatively like players on a well coached football team; all with a common quality service goal and all keeping true to their own assignments. But even more important, every lawyer on that team must have access to the training and resources he or she needs to be most efficient and to be empowered to access and use or take advantage of those resources. That's where ACC membership comes to the rescue. ACC provides a complete array of resources off a menu developed by other similarly situated in-house lawyers. From white-papers on key topics of interest to work product samples from some of the best represented fortune 500 companies in the world to a virtual library with user friendly search capability, ACC is there. And that's only the beginning. Through ACC membership, lawyers at all levels can tap into communication links with their peers in other corporations and they can garner guidance and valuable information from list serves and other online resources facilitated or administered through ACC. Moreover, ACC has become the leading provider of in-house counsel focused continuing legal education and training. And its CLE courses are provided at or near the lowest cost per CLE credit hour available anywhere. So the first answer to the CFO question set forth above is: "To meet the company's legal needs and expectations within the budget and personnel resources available, we must enable our lawyers to take full advantage of the output quality enhancements, time efficiencies and cost savings available to us only through ACC membership for each of them."

ANOTHER KEY ANSWER IS LINKED TO TIME AND COST SAVINGS VS. OUTSIDE COUNSEL:

For many, if not most, business entities, the biggest drain on the legal budget is not in-house lawyer salaries, but outside counsel fees. While perhaps indispensable for the defense or prosecution of litigation involving the corporate client and for the handling of unusual or highly specialized matters unlikely to recur on a regular basis, lawyers in corporate legal departments are adopting new ways of handling legal matters made possible by ACC's resource sharing and company-to-company cooperation. In the past, when confronted with and assignment beyond his or her legal experience would often turn to outside counsel for guidance or a first draft. This outside counsel-generated draft would then be adapted by the in-house counsel to best meet the client's needs, taking into account the client knowledge, culture and history best known to the in-house lawyer. This was an expensive approach because it involved outside counsel, on a high hourly rate, in the initial, time intensive creative drafting stage of the effort. The approach being tried today starts with The final step is to run what is believed to be a near final product by outside counsel with a request for a simple review and comment. Whether this change in processing legal work and its dependence on ACC logged work product of other corporations will work likely depends upon what the project is and how well it matches the resources available from ACC. But when it works, it is likely to reduce the number of fee hours incurred with outside counsel and, accordingly, reduce the legal expenditures of the corporate client by a like amount. So the additional answer available for response to the CFO's question is: "Through ACC membership for our lawyers, we make it possible for them to approach their work assignments differently; in a way that could generate savings for the company in outside counsel legal fees."

YET ANOTHER ANSWER IS LINKED TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND LAWYER MORALE:

I think it goes without saying that lawyers who are challenged with interesting work and feel good about their prospects for career development and advancement are happier and more productive. Obviously, it benefits the client when all the players on its legal department team are operating efficiently with enthusiasm, full cooperation and high morale. ACC membership contributes to the achievement of these goals by providing all sorts of opportunities outside the workplace, including ACC committee work at the local or national level, involvement as a panel participant or as a faculty member at annual meetings or for regional seminars, exposure to career development guidance and planning, volunteering time to pro bono programs, demonstrating leadership talents through community service projects, organizing charity fund raisers and through various other networking, sporting and adventure activities with other in-house lawyers. These excursions from sometimes repetitive or unchallenging in-house legal work can help keep morale high and aid the company in its retention of experienced, hard-to-replace lawyers. So the next answer is: ACC membership for the lawyers in the legal department will open doors to opportunities that can contribute to higher lawyer contentment and retention and greater job satisfaction.

THE GENERAL COUNSEL OR CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER MUST BE THE ACC MEMBERSHIP ADVOCATE:

Most clients take ABA membership as a given and automatically give their approval of that dues expense. We all support that membership because we know the ABA uses our dues money to promote generally the practice of law and the interest of lawyers. ACC not only compliments but goes well beyond the ABA in serving the specific needs and interests of in-house lawyers. In point of fact, while the ABA strives to represent the entire legal profession, including in-house practitioners, it can never serve or favor one constituent group at the expense of another. In short, it is constrained by its need to be balanced. ACC has no such constraint and it uses its dues revenues for the sole benefit of one, and only one, constituent group _ you and other in-house practitioners. But its capacity to serve that single constituent group is tied directly to the dues revenue it generates. It's important, therefore, that we all renew our membership in ACC and, equally as important, that we all encourage others we work with to join ACC as well. If you seek approval of your ACC dues from your company and encounter resistance or reluctance, feel free to use the answers set forth above and remember; ACC annual dues are equivalent to fewer that one or two hours of outside law firm service. If your General Counsel or Chief Legal Officer is not supportive of your interest in renewing your membership in ACC, share a copy of this article with a renewal of your request and encourage him or her to join also.

As to General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers responsible for Colorado based in-house lawyers, I want to encourage you to promote and be the advocate for full membership of all players on your legal department team. For the reasons set out above, I hope you would agree it's an advocacy roll that will benefit your client. It very likely could also contribute to your own success and career advancement. And don't forget that for legal departments of nine or more lawyers, there are very significant group discounts on ACC dues. For instructions and the form needed to get group discounts, go to http://www.acca.com/membership/largelaw.php.

TIME TO RENEW, GET A FREE CLE COURSE:

November is the start of the membership dues renewal period and if you are currently an ACC member you should have received your dues invoice from ACC national in the past week or two. In addition to having access to a wide range of resources developed exclusively for in-house counsel, if you renew by December 9, 2005, you will receive a free CLE course. Renewing online is fast and easy. Renew your ACC membership right now. If you are not able to access the online form, or are unable to pay with a credit card, please download this application form and mail it with your dues payment to ACC at 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036-5425.

CHECK OUT ACC AMERICA'S MEMBERSHIP NEWSLETTER:

For more in depth information regarding ACC membership, please visit the ACC Membership Newsletter online at http://news.acca.com/accammu/issues/2005-11-09.html. In this issue, you can find out where your department stands in compensation by clicking on the article entitled, "2005 Compensation and Outside Counsel Management Surveys Released." Also, discover how the InfoPAK(tm), training and surveys help answer the Question of the Month: "The revised Corporate Sentencing Guidelines mandate that organizations provide effective compliance training for employees. What ACC resources are available to assist corporate counsel in designing satisfactory programs?"

BETWEEN JOBS? OR LOST YOUR JOB DUE TO A HURRICANE? FREE ONE-YEAR ACC RENEWAL:

Should you become unemployed while a member, ACC will waive up to one year of membership dues while you seek another in-house position. If you find yourself without a job as a result of the hurricane, ACC will provide you with free membership for a year. If you have any other good cause or issues preventing you from renewing your membership, ACC will extend your membership as needed. Please contact ACC's membership department with your questions: membership@acca.com.