Then, the corporate attorney will be involved in the implementation of the new contract, the integration of the newly acquired subsidiary, or the organization of the new line of business. The corporate attorney frequently works closely with other professionals in the corporation on these projects, including accountants, engineers, scientists, and lawyers in international jurisdictions, using a team approach to achieve corporate objectives while accommodating the restrictions imposed by each specialty. The corporate attorney is both the lawyer involved in the transaction and a business partner to the internal client. As a partner to the business in which they work, corporate attorneys must develop some familiarity with accounting and with financial statements. They should be prepared to understand a balance sheet and income statement and a statement of profit and loss.
Revenue recognition is a frequent topic of discussion in-house.
In order to provide complete and useful advice to the client, lawyers have to explain how their legal advice will affect the company s financial statements. In fact, many corporate attorneys do not work fewer hours than they did in private practice, but relief from the stress of the billable hour requirement weighs heavily in favor of a good quality of life. In private practice, lawyers are always aware that they are being evaluated on the basis of the quality of their work and the number of hours billed, and many feel that the number of hours is the most important factor. But in-house attorneys are evaluated on the quality of their work, often as reflected in the evaluations made by internal clients who are not lawyers. Late nights more often result from a choice to get the job done, not from a need to increase this month s billable hours.