While general counsel and senior members of a legal department usually spend a significant amount of their time focused on the legal issues facing the company, they rarely give the proper amount of attention to the core feature of the department: the talent.  Without talented individuals, none of the legal work gets done or gets done well.  And the cost of replacing someone who leaves can be dramatic in terms of time-to-hire, expense, and impact on the ability to get work done.  Consequently, all general counsel and department managers need to understand the importance of how to attract, train, and retain top-level legal talent in their organization.  Here are some interesting statistics: in 1980, about 26% of licensed attorneys in the US were under the age of 35.  In 2018, only 4% are under the age of 30, with an expected 15% decrease in the number of 35 to 44-year olds in the marketplace!  The pool of in-house candidates is shrinking and as our population ages and lawyers leave, finding and retaining legal talent will – if not already – become a big part of the general counsel’s job (which means it will also become part of the job of everyone reporting to her).  This edition of “Ten Things” discusses how to attract, train, and retain in-house legal talent:

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