In recent years, organizational clients have become increasingly more demanding of their lawyers and law firms, insisting on all manner of reasonable and unreasonable provisions in their engagement terms and outside counsel guidelines.
You may be subject to commonly-demanded provisions such as sweeping definitions of client identity, which includes dozens or hundreds of corporate affiliates uninvolved in a matter. Or, you may have seen such provisions redefining conflicts of interest more broadly than the ethics rules allow. Other examples include:
- Provisions claiming ownership and copyright protection for a law firm’s work
- Indemnification provisions
- Authority to conduct audits
- Security requirements.
Pepper partner Hope A. Comisky and Cozen O’Connor member Thomas G. Wilkinson will examine both the substance and process of dealing with these provisions.
Content contributed by attorneys of Troutman Sanders LLP and Pepper Hamilton LLP prior to July 1, 2020, is included here, together with content contributed by attorneys of Troutman Pepper (the combined entity) after the merger date.