Laura Owen, the director, worldwide legal services, at Cisco Systems Inc. has written a thought provoking article to start the year on how businesses could get more out of their external lawyers.

The Tech Evolution: Change or Die(via Strategic Legal Technology and Dennis Kennedy) challenges lawyers by listing 9 things they can do to help their clients be more productive.

The suggestions range from setting up systems for routine document production to creating consortia to develop new solutions.

"In one example, five companies with global
operations have joined together with a U.K.-based law firm to develop
e-learning programs for managers, to provide training about employment
laws in various countries. The content is provided by the law firm,
which then gets the training module and application developed by the
participating companies to market to its other clients — and the
companies get the training."

The challenge for clients is to work with their lawyers in partnership so that the lawyers can see the long term benefit of such an approach.