The views of corporate counsel command a high degree of moral authority and respect in the world of commercial legal services. It was not always so, but it is now rare for private practice partners to deride in-house peers as professionals who went in-house because they ‘couldn’t cut it’ in the clever old world of the corporate law firm. Competition for many vacant in-house posts is now fierce.

The decision of businesses with a high legal spend to create law firm panels - culling the number of firms instructed, setting conditions and working practices for those who remained - changed the power balance of the legal market.

As they enter a new phase for legal services in 2012, corporate counsel could again be responsible for shaping this part of the legal market. But as the Gazette reports (see In Business), if they do not take the lead in shaping legal services, the creation of alternative business structures offers the chance for others to do so.

It would be in the interests of businesses for corporate counsel to take that lead. If they do, it is more likely that valuable institutional knowledge will be kept in-house, and that advice will be more commercially appropriate.

If they do not, corporate outsourcing specialists are keen to move ‘up the food chain’ - something they have achieved in other sectors of business life, with far-reaching results.