At the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, one theme resonated the loudest – and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with slashing panel law firms and cutting external legal spend. Still, external counsel shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.

The assembly of 200 or so senior in-house lawyers undertook a little self-analysis over the two-day event, and, in many cases, conceded that their criticisms of law firms being run inefficiently could also be applied to themselves. They needed to overhaul their own departments to make them more professional business outfits, and perhaps even more importantly, stop being lawyers and start being businessmen. In this, delegates were urged to start bringing in extra revenue rather than just protecting existing income streams. You should be suing your competitors and increasing the company’s market share, one chief executive urged.

The private practice lawyer still got a bit of a kicking, though. You can read a report on the event in the print issue of next week’s Gazette, with an extended report, including extra topics, available online on 18 June.