Is your business big enough, and your legal outlay large enough, to bring an in-house lawyer on-board? The answer is more complicated than you might think.. I tackle it in the December 2011 Legal Eagles, The Pros and Cons of In-House Counsel (Alberta Venture).

Featuring James Pasieka, Calgary managing partner of national law firm Heenan Blaikie LLP, Bonita Croft, vice-president, legal, general counsel and corporate secretary with Trican Well Service Ltd., Anita Dusevic Oliva, senior legal counsel and corporate secretary with Inter Pipeline Fund, and Adam Pekarsky, founding partner of legal recruiting/consulting firm Pekarsky Stein.

Sister piece: Why Business Lawyers Say No and Why It’s Not Necessarily A Bad Thing (December 2011, Alberta Venture).

Oh, quotable me:

or your first legal hire, you don’t want an inexperienced lawyer to just shuffle paper or run to your (overpaid!) external counsel for help every time you ask her a question. You need someone to keep reins on those external lawyers and their propensity to bill in six-minute increments.

Oh, quotable you:

“It’s a dirty little secret of the legal community: Even some of your best-paid partners at some of the biggest, most profitable firms in the city would jump at the opportunity to be a startup company’s first counsel.” Adam Pekarsky