Inhouse counsel

The Jolly Contrarian’s Dictionary The snippy guide to financial services lingo.™ Go Premium Index — Click ᐅ to expand: Dictionary Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Inhouse counsel /ˈɪnhaʊs ˈkaʊns(ə)l/ (n.)
A peculiar breed of legal wordwright whose expertise chiefly resides in knowing enough about the law to frame the right question for someone else, but artfully disclaiming enough knowledge to actually answer it; and the tactical acumen to throw such a hospital pass to such an unsuspecting third party without anyone twigging that she has done it. You can find detailed criteria — what it takes to excel at the job of steering emails — here.

The person who proves best at this behaviour over a sustained period of time gets to be general counsel.

See also

• Inhouse legal team of the year
• Circle of escalation
• General counsel
• Doctrine of precedent