Recognizing the In-House Counsel's Role of 'Compliance Generalist' as a Formal Practice Area of Law

Abstract

For many years, a number of large law firms have offered highly specialized practice areas dealing with various compliance requirements in specific and discrete areas of the law. A few examples include tax, securities, anti-trust and, lately, anti-corruption. In recent years, in-house counsel have been required to respond to rapidly increasing legal and regulatory burdens imposed on their organizations and have become experts in a more generalized universe of compliance-related requirements. By developing and sustaining a comprehensive program of legal and ethical compliance standards they can better ensure that their organizations will satisfy their obligations to comply with all applicable laws and regulations; they also provide a viable defense to an organization if a rogue employee does not do so. The in-house counsel’s efforts as “compliance generalist” in all areas of the law that affect his or her organization are vital to the organization’s success, as much so as any other legal practice area, and they constitute an area of the legal practice that is and should be formally recognized and appreciated as such.