One of the continuing themes in legal practice is that the law
schools are failing in their duty to produce the next generation of
lawyers armed with the skills needed for the world in which they will
(if they are lucky) work. We come across this specifically in the
context of electronic discovery / eDisclosure, which is barely talked
about all, even in US law schools. Richard Susskind’s next book
addresses the subject. Now we have an article on the website In-house Access which gives some advice from Mike Dillon, GC at Adobe, with the heading Things I Wish I Learnt in Law School.

There is no reference to black letter law – the article is all about
“using the legal organisation to enable the business” and about budgets,
communication, simplifying complex issues and understanding business
risk.

It is perhaps not surprising that I came across the article via a tweet from Geoff Wild, Director of Governance and Law at Kent County Council, recently named General Counsel of the Year at the British Legal Awards. I wrote about Geoff earlier this year – see County Council sets modernisation example to the rest of us
– and thanks to him I now have to add “There are exceptions, of course”
to anything I write about the people who work (or who are, at least,
paid to turn up to work) at UK local authorities.

Although Mike Dillon’s target audience was those who are embarking on
a career as in-house counsel, the messages apply equally to those who
work externally for them – or who hope to work for them – in private
practice. If these are his expectations in his own office, what does he
look for in his external advisers?