Understand the changing role of your lawyers

It's not discussed as much, but Sarbanes-Oxley has really changed the game for in-house attorneys, as well as financial and compliance executives. In-house lawyers have seen their responsibilities morph. A recent survey found that there have been some positives when it comes to their jobs. Board members seem more engaged and executives more informed. But 34 percent also say their relationship with outside auditors has become more difficult to manage. This is not earth-shattering news. Compliance requires the second biggest time investment, behind transactional work. All this comes as big changes are going on. You are likely to see more requests for outside counsel work related to compliance issues. That's been quite the trend lately. You might want to figure out how to factor legal review into key processes.

For more:
- check out this survey