It comes as no surprise to me that in-house lawyers are outsourcing more work to private practice (see [2001] Gazette, 20 April, 1).

However, this does not mean that in-house lawyers are doing less, or that in-house lawyers are in decline.Their role is to provide legal services to their companies.

In many large in-house departments the lawyers are specialists with expertise ranging from commercial, litigation, employment and property, among others.

The demand for legal services often outweighs the resources available, and private practitioners are needed.

Also, where a particular expertise is not catered for by the in-house team, it has to be bought in.The complexity of business and greater regulation in many areas creates an ever-increasing workload.

Decisions have to be made as to how to deal with this work.

One solution is to increase the size of the in-house department.

But that is only sensible if it is envisaged that the increasing workload will be constant over the long term.

To gear up for a sizeable piece of litigation may leave the company with several litigators twiddling their thumbs rather than preparing evidence if the case settles.

Also, it would be wasteful to have a specialist as part of the in-house team in an area only rarely required.An alternative is to outsource the increase in work.

In smaller in-house departments, where there is less specialisation, the need to outsource is even greater.The number of lawyers engaged in commerce and industry is increasing as companies seek to engage in-house staff to reap the advantages of cost effective and easily accessible lawyers with a knowledge of business.

The recent Law Society survey indicates an increase in the amount of work outsourced to private practice.These facts show that there is an increase in in-house lawyers' workload, which is resulting in bigger in-house departments and an increase in the amount of work placed with private practice.The role of the in-house lawyer is also changing.

It is still primarily to provide quality legal advice and services to a company, but an increasing part of the role is to act as legal managers.

That means providing legal project management, bringing in resources from outside as necessary, and managing such resources for maximum value.

Increasingly, in-house lawyers are supplementing legal training with management and personal development training to act as legal managers or legal risk managers.The relationship between in-house lawyers as major purchasers of legal services and private practition ers is also changing.

The days of the 'post box' in-house lawyers are over, or numbered.

Less frequently are private practitioners given cases to handle, and bill, as they please.

In-house lawyers are influencing case management and charging rates.Sophisticated arrangements are entered into where the in-house lawyer manages the relationship and fees so as to extract maximum value.

The same pressures are put on in-house lawyers as other members of the company to manage costs to budget and financial controls.So, although more time is spent outsourcing work, the role of in-house lawyers is far from declining.

Workload is up which causes the need to recruit or outsource.

To outsource provides greater flexibility and is being done in parallel with some increase in the number of in-house lawyers.

The influence of in-house lawyers is increasing as the major purchasers of external legal services with the opportunity to do what in-house lawyers do best P protect the interests of companies by being legal managers who provide the best legal service at the best price.