In-housers biggest fears

The Houston Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association brought together three Houston-based in-house lawyers this morning for a panel discussion on issues relating to the relationship between in-house lawyers and their outside counsel. The in-housers told the crowd of legal marketers at the two-hour event that they do expect their outside firms to think about diversity, they don’t find beauty contests very useful, and they turn down invitations to lavish firm marketing and networking events at resorts. “I just don’t support the nature of those,” said Cyndi Baily, general counsel of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Larry Smith, a senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications who moderated the panel discussion, asked the in-house lawyers to identify their biggest on-the-job fear. Jamey Seely, vice president and general counsel of U.S. Direct Energy in Houston, said she fears the unexpected. A whistle-blower action is what Bailey fears the most. For Joseph Speelman, associate general counsel at Houston-based Lyondell, it’s whatever plaintiffs lawyers deem the latest hot area of litigation. “I spend 20 to 25 percent of my time trying to figure out where the next predatory litigation is coming from,” Speelman said.

-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys