The value of in-house IP counsel experience

From a press release at Reuters:

"We believe that attorneys with experience as in-house IP counsel possess a
much better ability to translate business goals into IP strategy," continued
Mr. Jonathan Levitt. "Patent GC attorneys are all lawyers who have had to manage
budgets, make strategic decisions about patent portfolios and work with
technology development teams as well as the business teams and investors at
fast-paced operating companies. We believe their in-house experience makes
Patent GC attorneys uniquely capable of providing business-oriented legal
advice in a way traditional law firm lawyers simply cannot."


Patent GC will follow Outside GC's low-overhead approach to providing legal
services and will also utilize outsourcing models for docketing and routine
tasks, resulting in a fee structure that, like Outside GC's, will be welcomed
news for clients. "Since 2002, Outside GC has been a tremendous help to our
legal operations, augmenting our in-house capacity to handle domestic and
international transactions, M&A support and joint ventures, all while
providing us significant savings in fees," said Michael Prescott, Senior Vice
President and General Counsel of GTECH Corporation. "We look forward to the
opportunity to benefit from the same model by having Patent GC assist with our
patent work."

**Now, cross-reference this to and
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=876125
Corporate loyalty and the Cable/Hanson story

Also, note the IAM blog text: BTI is predicting an 8.6% fall in spending on
IP transactional work among the US's biggest companies in 2010.